NGE: Nobody Dies: The Trials of Kirima Harasami
by Immatrael
Summary: Kirima Harasami was an ordinary student in Tokyo-3 High School. Then a blue-haired, red-eyed girl called Rei joined her class, and her life became a whole lot more interesting than she ever wanted. Spinoff fanfic from NGE: Nobody Dies.
1. Chapter 1

This is a spinoff fanfic to Gregg Landsman's excellent fanfic _NGE: Nobody Dies_. If you haven't already read it, go do so! It's on my favourites list. I'll wait here till you're done.

**1.**

She is eight years old when she sees the blue haired girl for the first time. The red-eyed dynamo of energy tears through the class and unnerves the other children. Kirima watches her curiously, ducking back behind her book when Ayanami glances her way and pretending to be reading.

She has seen energetic children before, but nonetheless, she can't help but think that Ayanami seems... different, somehow. She is soon distracted by the lesson, though, and quickly forgets about the new student.

**2.**

Naami, Kuzon, Shotou and Tarou catch her in the playground again. It was stupid to read over here, she thinks. Usually she stays where the teacher can see her, but she had wanted to get away from the noise. Now she is paying for it. She cries out again as Shotou pushes her hard onto the wet grass, tears burning the corners of her eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpses Hikari watching stonily, teeth gritted and fists clenched. She knows that it burns the other girl to see this and not be able to stop it, but the older children are smart. They don't leave any marks beyond normal playground bruising, and even if Hikari could convince the teacher to come and catch them in the act, they would be long gone by the time he got here, and more vicious still the next time they caught her. In the end, it's their word against Kiri's and Hikari's, and the older children always win. All Hikari can do is watch, and run for help if it gets too bad.

She struggles up again, trying to snatch her ribbon out of Naami's hand as the older girl flicks it in front of her face. She doesn't even make it a single step before a foot hooks around her ankle and sends her crashing down again. The fall jolts her mouth and makes her bite her tongue, and she lets out another sob, praying for break to be over. She lies in a little ball on the ground, not trying to get up again. Maybe if she stays still for long enough, they'll go away.

"FOR GREAT JUSTICE!" The battlecry roars out over her and she hears Kuzon scream in sudden pain. Shotou curses and she hears him move, only for his feet to abruptly leave the ground and a heavy thud seconds later signify his return to Earth. What sounds like a punch from Tarou is met and terminated with a painful-sounding crunch, and the bullies break and run from their attacker, scrambling frantically away in blind terror.

Confused and tear-stained, she looks up into red eyes framed by cobalt bangs. Ayanami Rei shrugs by way of explanation.

"You were all cryin' and stuff. An' there were four of them, an' only one of you, sooo~o... that's kinda not fair, right? And that means they were bad. An' you were cryin'."

She holds her hand out. After staring for a while, Kiri tentatively reaches up to take it. Grinning widely, Ayanami pulls her up.

"Okay, now we gotta go to the nurse's office. Cause you don't heal very well, so we gotta get you looked at in case of bad stuff. Little Mommy told me that. C'mon!"

She is confused, a little scared and her scraped knees and bruised side protest as she's dragged inside to the nurse, who Ayanami demands look her over for any injuries. Nonetheless, that is the moment that Harasami Kirima decides she wants to be like Ayanami Rei.

**3.**

"Aya-Ayanami, w-would you l-like to... no... um... I'm really very g-grateful to you f-for... um... that is... I-I was thinking o-of... and... um.."

Kirima slumps, biting her lip and squeezing her thumb nervously in a shaking fist. She looks up at the mirror again and sighs. If she can't even work out how to thank the girl now, how is she going to get the words out face-to-face with her?

The bullies haven't bothered her once since Ayanami saved her a week ago. They had run to the teachers and complained that Ayanami had attacked them, and Kiri had mustered up her courage and squeaked out a protest. Hikari had backed her up and the teacher had told the older students that he'd be keeping an eye on them in future, but he'd still given Ayanami a detention.

The blunette had smiled sunnily at Kiri and taken the punishment without a word of complaint. The Kirima in her head, the one who was brave and confident and who Ayanami would respect and be friends with, had at once asked Ayanami if she wanted to come around for a sleepover, and they had watched a movie and played together and become best friends.

The real Kirima had managed to get halfway across the classroom to ask before chickening out, scurrying back to her desk and hiding behind a book.

Her head falls to the desk with a quiet thunk and she sighs. Tomorrow, she thinks. Tomorrow, she'll _definitely_ invite Ayanami to a sleepover. For real, this time.

Her four successive failures so far are conveniently ignored.

**4.**

"Sooo~o..." Ayanami says from just behind her right ear. Kiri stifles a shriek. The other girl had been on the other side of the classroom a moment ago. And on her left, to boot.

"I was talkin' to Little Mommy, right. About, like, _special friends_ and stuff. And what they do. And she told me about _sleepovers!_" She grins widely. "They're super-special-awesome things, see, that show you like people. Aaa~and, if I get invited on one, it means I've done reee~eally well at making friends!"

Her grin widens. Several nearby children shift away edgily. Kiri ignores them. This is her chance! "Um... you... I m-mean, I'd l-like to think... that is... um..."

"An' we're friends, right?" Transfixed by the crimson gaze like a field mouse before a snake, Kiri nods mutely, heart in her throat.

"Awesome! So, I'm not allowed to invite you round to where I live," Ayanami pouts at this, "an' while I could _totally_ get you in anyway, Little Mommy would be super-angry if I did. In the uber-not-good kind of way. So you gotta invite ME round to YOUR place for a sleepover! An' then we can do epic fun stuff!"

"Um... I... uh... I..."

Ayanami's gaze fixes on her and she swallows her nervousness. This time, she thinks, for _real_. Properly.

"Ah... okay... uh... A-Ayanami... um... w-would... ah... would you... w-?" she finally manages to squeak out, eyes fixed on her desk and cringing slightly. Despite the wavering of her voice and the blurted, garbled sound of the request, a sense of triumph fills her. She dares peek through her hair at Ayanami.

Who is looking at her, head tilted, with a slight frown on her face. Kiri pales. Did she do something wrong? Maybe she accidentally gave offense? Or maybe Ayanami wanted her to ask later, more formally? Or maybe she should have asked her parents first? Or gotten them to ask Ayanami's parents? She doesn't even know who Ayanami's parents were! What kind of friend is she? A proper friend would've found out something like that by now! A proper friend would've approached Ayanami earlier instead of chickening out, and talked to her about things like this, and-

"You know," interrupts Ayanami, "you can call me Rei. And yeah, it's a deal! Operation SLEEPOVER! Now in effect!" Aya- no, _Rei_ stands for the last part and yells it out to the classroom at large. All heads turn.

Flushed crimson and slightly mortified though she is, Kiri is glowing internally with happiness and self-esteem.

And she can't _wait_ for the night of the sleepover.

**5.**

Rei bounces happily on the western-style bed, a present from Kirima's parents for her sixth birthday. Kiri smiles at her friend's enthusiasm (a little thrill of excitement goes through her as she thinks of Rei as a friend - her first, really), and tries to think of what exactly you were meant to do on a sleepover. It will have to be something good, that Rei would be interested in, so as to set a good first impression.

"D-do... ah... Rei? Do y-you want something to eat?"

The sudden riveted attention she finds herself the recipient of suggests that she has probably cottoned onto a winner.

Watching Rei eat is an... experience. Kiri manages to dig out and fry a pack of bacon rashers - the last of the food they have, she'll have to tell her mother so that they can go shopping for some more - and Rei's eyes light up in glee. Kiri looks on in mild horror as Rei's jaw seems to actually unhinge as the hyperactive girl pounces on the plate. It is over very quickly, and Rei looks up from the suddenly empty plate, head tilted.

"Awesome! _**Bacon**_ rocks! So, now what do we do?" Kiri tries not to get flustered at being put on the spot again and spots a welcome distraction.

"Ah... w-well, I have to f-feed Usagi before anything else..." She gets out the bag of feed and carefully pours it into a bowl, pausing to grab a fresh bottle of water before sliding the door open and leading Rei down the garden to the hatch. Usagi snuffles at her fingers as she puts the fresh food in, and Kiri treats her to a couple of bits of carrot and a lettuce leaf.

"Ooo! You have a pet! Zyuu would love that, she _likes_ animals!"

Kiri blinks. "...um... Zyuu? Who's that?"

"Oh... uh... one of my sisters. I have seven. But they don't go out much cause they've got a... um..." Rei thinks for a moment, "long-term con-gen-ital car-dio-vas-cular dis-order."

"A what?"

"A heart thingy so they have to stay at home near the stabilisy machines cause otherwise they might go all wierd an' bad an' stuff if something triggers an attack. They're usually okay, but if they're out an' about, they're more likely to have one, so..."

"Oh." Kiri imagines staying cooped up at home her whole life and shivers, picking up Usagi and cuddling her for reassurance. "That's t-terrible. Couldn't they g-go out for just a little bit? With grown-ups, or something, once a month?"

Rei looks taken aback and gives her an appraising look. "Huh... I dunno. Maybe I'll mention it next time I see them."

Kiri smiles tremulously, glad to have helped.

"Sooo~o... now that the rabbit's fed," Rei strokes it distractedly, gears whirring behind crimson eyes, "I got an _idea_."

"Um... an idea?"

"Yeah! This is a sleepover, right?" She waits for Kiri's hesitant nod. "Sooo~o, we gotta sleep OVER something!"

Kiri opens her mouth to protest, catches sight of the excitement on Rei's face and closes it again.

"...okay. W-what?"

Rei strikes a dramatic pose and levels an arm at the heavens.

"_EVERYTHING!_"

Kiri follows Rei's arm skywards up to on one of the nearby skyscrapers, and she struggles not to whimper in fear.

**6.**

Rei's new _special friend_ has fainted. She feels a slight twinge of guilt at this - humans aren't as awesome as Nephilim like her, they're all weak and slow and fragile and stuff. Hatchi sometimes gets annoyed at them for that, but Rei figures that Nephilim are built for Nephilim _Stuff_, like _**justice**_ and _**babies**_ and _**bacon**_, and humans are probably built to be really good at human _Stuff_. She's not quite sure what _Stuff_ would need someone to be all weak and slow and fragile, but Little Mommy said that's how it was, and she's reee~eally clever, so Rei believes her.

She looks around for some food to make - people need food to recover, right? However, the fare is poor - mostly staple foods like rice and vegetables. That's not right, her friend needs meat, like _**bacon**_. Worried, she looks again, tearing through the rooms in search of something to make. Still nothing. She returns to the kitchen, morose. Kiri is still unconscious, and Rei bites her lip, thinking hard. She's looked in all the cupboards, and nothing really stands out... she _could_ go out and find something...

And then her eyes alight upon the hutch in the garden, and a grin slowly spreads across her face.

Kiri wakes to the smell of something cooking. It is an unfamiliar scent - strong, and slightly gamy. Her eyes flutter open and Rei's smiling face appears before her.

"Heee~ey. You screamed an' fainted around when we got to the seventh floor, so I brought you back here an' made you something to eat!"

Oh. That was nice of her. So kind and generous. She looks over to the source of the smell - she doesn't recognise it, though the shape rings a bell. It's not chicken, or squid...

Her eyes drift past it. Through the window. To the broken hutch. Unbidden, a memory rises to the forefront of her mind - making a note to tell her mother that they're out of food and need to go shopping to restock. Her mother, who isn't back yet, and so has yet to bring back any food Rei could have cooked. Kiri's mind works sluggishly, unable to process the next train of thought.

"Come on, eat up!" Rei singsongs cheerfully. "It's really good!" She tears off a piece - a leg - and devours it. Kiri pushes herself upright and stares, uncomprehending. The knowledge bubbles at the back of her mind, wordless, and she pushes it away, refusing to even _think_ it.

"Oh. You're okay. Weee~ell... in that case, d'you mind if I have it?"

Kiri makes no sound of protest, still staring blankly at the blunette. Rei tears into the meal like a hungry wolverine and Kiri, still in a state of quiet denial, looks away from the spectacle before she starts to feel nauseous.

And sees the pot on the side. And the blood. And the furry skin, with two limp little ears hanging off the near side.

Her mind finally processes exactly what has happened, and Kirima starts to scream.

**7.**

There are visits. One from Yui and Gendo Ikari, expressing their sincere apologies over any trauma their daughter has caused. One from Rei herself, the blunette acting uncharacteristically ashamed. She buys Kiri a new rabbit and explains, haltingly, under Yui's eye, that she hadn't known about pets and food and the differences between them. NERV pays reparations for damages, and while Kiri hears her father mutter that it might as well be a bribe to keep their mouths shut about what happened, he doesn't make a scene about it.

Kiri stays mostly silent throughout. She cries a little over Usagi, and names her new rabbit Hoshi, taking him with her to buy a new hutch. She acts polite to the Ikaris and accepts their apologies, and tells her parents that she is fine, she is okay, she was scared at the time but she's alright now. She isn't sure they believe her, but they leave her alone.

In school, she watches Rei carefully. The other girl never makes a move in her direction - Kiri suspects that Yui has ordered Rei to give her space - but she knows Rei is aware she's watching. There are many emotions bound up there - fear, grief, regret, a lingering strain of horror and even, deep down, a tiny spark of admiration and longing.

But no hate. She can't muster any hatred at all for Rei, for all her trying. It would be so _easy_ if she could hate the girl - she certainly hates what she _did_, and the fact that she _can't_ hate her. But try as she might, every time she wants to hate Rei, all she can find is a lingering sadness, and the image of red eyes framed by cobalt bangs, reaching down to help her up.

**8.**

Kiri's split with Rei does not go unnoticed. Naami catches her eye as she walks into school a few mornings later and she realises with a dull sense of terror that with Rei carefully keeping her distance, the bullies probably consider her to be a valid target once more. The prospect is almost enough to make her welcome Rei back into her life, but the lingering memory of ears hanging over the side of a bloodstained pot stops her. When lunch break rolls around, she hides behind a book on marine life awaits the 'accidental' bumps and 'mysterious' disappearances of her things with a quiet dread, flinching at every movement nearby.

They never come. When she sees Kuzon at the end of the day, running up to her mother to be taken home, his glare is both furious and sullen. But they made no move to pick up their old habits - indeed; they avoid her like the plague, finding an excuse to leave any room she enters as soon as possible.

It is the first time anyone has ever seemed _scared_ of Kiri. She has suspicions on _why_, but Rei continues to give her space and Kiri can't bring herself to breach the invisible chasm between them. Even thinking about it makes her nervous. Hikari, after deciphering Kiri's stuttered questions, is equally puzzled, and the bullies themselves wouldn't reveal anything even if she could work up the courage to ask.

It is Sasoriko who eventually sheds light on the matter, confronting Kiri before classes start. She is wearing her customary expression - mostly neutral, with a vague hint that suggests mild annoyance at the recurring minor stupidities of the world.

"So, it's sad that Naami and her little group aren't hanging out with you at lunchtime anymore, isn't it?" she asks nonchalantly. Kiri gapes at her in mute incomprehension.

"Oh, wait, no," the pale girl smirks. "It isn't, is it? Actually, it's quite convenient." She pins Kiri with a piercing look. "So, what exactly did you have Rei do to them?"

Kiri's stuttered denials are swept aside with a careless hand gesture. "Oh please. Don't be coy - you can stop pretending, it's not like it's a secret. Half the school is talking about them turning up all pale faced and shaking after lunch a week ago. Which was also the day Rei skipped lunch, I might add. It's really not hard to join the dots. You set Rei on them because they were being mean to you."

She cocks her head, letting this sink in for a minute, then flashes Kiri a thin-lipped smile.

"Well done! Good strategy. You could have been a little sneakier, of course, but overall not bad. What did you bribe her with, food?"

Limp bunny ears hanging out of the pot flash across Kiri's vision and she tries not to retch, forcing the words out with difficulty. "I-I... I d-didn't... t-tell her to... I mean... R-Rei and I haven't even b-been..."

"Yes yes. You know, it's kind of obvious you're keeping your distance so the teachers don't figure it out when someone tells on her. If you wanted to look innocent, you should really have carried on as if you didn't know about it. Still, not bad for what I've seen of you - I didn't think you were smart enough to come up with something like this. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Suspicions apparently confirmed, Sasoriko crosses the classroom back to her desk, shooting a vicious glare at Shiro when he makes a comment as she passes him.

Kiri sits still for a few minutes, stunned - and makes a note to be a little more cautious around Sasoriko in future. A seven year old mind capable of working out how to use Rei as a way to deal with bullies - and get away with it - is probably a mind which she shouldn't probably get too close to. She has no _idea_ why Sasoriko thought she would do something like that, but...

...but...

Had Rei really warned the bullies off? It seemed to fit, when she thought about it. Then... even though Kiri had been avoiding her, she had gone out of her way to make sure Kiri would still be safe. She was still protecting her, even now! And she was trying to do it without Kiri knowing, as well - obeying Kiri's unspoken wish for space. She carefully avoids the thought of exactly what Rei had said or done to the bullies and focuses on the _intent_ there - her mother always says it's the thought that counts, right? Sure, Rei is a little... unsocialised. But everyone has their little quirks. And she didn't _know_ about pets, it was just a mistake. She's still a basically good person - it wasn't her fault!

Deep down, the image of bloodstained ears fades. It will never quite dissolve entirely, but for now it recedes, overlaid by a hand reaching down to help Kiri up and a sunny smile as Rei freely takes a detention for helping a girl she doesn't know. And for now, that's enough. She knows what she has to do, after class.

"Um... R-Rei?" The blunette blinks in surprise and looks up from her lunch to see Kiri squeezing her thumb nervously. "I... um... I mean... we- I'd like to- if it's okay... we've sort of not been... and, uh, I've been thinking a bit and- and you're... so... um..."

She trails off, and Rei cocks her head, examining her. Kiri tries not to squirm under the intense gaze.

And Rei's face breaks into a beaming grin, and she beckons Kiri to sit down. And as she does so, and Rei starts a rambling monologue - something about coffee, squeaky mallets and cars - everything is, for a brief moment, _alright_.


	2. Chapter 2

**9.**

Kiri has almost forgotten about Rei's sisters by the time she first meets one. She is sitting happily in her favourite ice cream parlour, near closing time. Her mother is talking about boring grown-up stuff to a lady on one of the other tables that she knows from work, and Kiri is left to her own devices. She licks at her ice-cream (vanilla and cherry), and lets her mind drift. Hoshi has been acting a little poorly lately - he might be sick, she should look into that. There's a test coming up in school which she should be studying for. And her birthday is in six months and two weeks and three days, so she should get a move on choosing presents and working out what she wants to do for her party. And-

And...

And is that Rei outside? It is - she's wearing a ballerina costume and fairy wings, and she's _drenched_, but it's definitely Rei. The owner seems to have noticed her as well, he lets her in. Kiri frowns - something about the way she moves, her expressions... something's off about her friend.

It isn't until the girl bounds onto a table and leaps, posing in midair, that she realises what might be going on. The girl's next words confirm it.

"I'm Hatchini, the Ostrich Fairy! An' I'm blessing this place! Cause it's fun, and Ostrich Fairies do fun things!" She waves her wings, presumably sprinkling blessed fairy dust on the table she's standing on, and leaps over to Kiri's, landing silently. She's halfway through a pirouette when Kiri speaks up.

"Um... excuse me... are y-you one of Rei's sisters?"

The girl stops, perfectly balanced, and looks down. "...yeah. I'm Hatchi. Hatchini the Ostrich Fairy, at the moment. Who are you?"

"Uh- Kirima Harasami." She tries to bow from a sitting position, "I'm very glad to meet you!"

"Ooooh! You're Rei's friend! The one who had the idea about us breaking out! Awesome!" Hatchi beams at her. "That was a great idea. Okay then, I am now inducting you as my official sidekick! Right now we're being Ostrich Fairies, cause you have to be a fairy to do ballet. And ostriches never seem to get their own fairies, even though they can disembowel a man with a kick which sounds _really cool_ and is _way_ better than nightingales or thrushes."

"... ... ..." says Kiri.

"Oh, and we gotta stay ahead of the NERV Section 2 Goblins. They're evil goblins who try to catch Ostrich Fairies and lock them up forever and ever in a big underground castle!" She leaps off the table and grabs Kiri by the hand, dragging her upright. "Oh, an' they have warts," she adds as an afterthought, "so we gotta go now, or else they'll catch up and- hey. Are those _milkshakes?_"

"...uh-"

Hatchi darts over to the counter, dragging Kiri with her, and stares eagerly up at the board of milkshake ingredients. "They are! Ooo! White chocolate! An' banana! Hmm... maybe you could put them together an' then add... ginger? Or maybe-"

And that's when the door bursts open and a dozen black-suited men level dart guns into the cafe and fire. The last thing Kiri sees before everything goes black is Hatchi almost _flowing_ under a round of tranquiliser darts and springing towards the door.

**10.**

After she has woken up and dealt once again with NERV Section 2 (garnering more than one look of sympathy from the black-suited agents, who appear to recognise her from last time), Kiri decides to try to forget about Hatchi. The other girl will, after all, probably have forgotten about her by the time she next gets out.

She is just putting Hoshi's feed back in the cupboard the next day; carefully balancing on a stool and stretching up to reach the shelf, when the phone rings. She starts, narrowly avoids dropping the heavy bag and just barely manages to push it fully onto the shelf so that it won't stay off. That done, she climbs down and hurries over to answer the call.

"Hello? Harasami residence, Kiri speaking," she repeats. That's more or less what her mother says when Kiri has heard her answer a call. "Who is this, please?"

"Heeeey~"

Kiri freezes. She has, over the past few months, grown _very_ familiar with Rei's 'Heee~ey'. This was not Rei's 'Heee~ey'. It did, however, sound remarkably like...

"Sooooo... I was thinkin', right. You're my _sidekick_ now, an' that means I gotta look after you and Stuff. Cause sidekicks usually get kidnapped, an' then I'd have to rescue you, an' it'd be a lot easier if you were able to do stuff from inside an' maybe halfway escape by yourself - I mean, you'll never be _that_ good," and here Hatchi's tone turns patronising, "but you might be able to get better than most humans. People. An' stuff."

"Um... h-how did y-you get this n-number?" Kiri asks. There are actually quite a lot of others on her mind, such as 'what do you mean, kidnapped?' and 'is being a sidekick going to result in me being scared to death', not to mention 'do I have a choice of _not_ being your sidekick?". However, she has a strong suspicion that the answers to these will not be beneficial to her state of mind right now.

"Oh, that was easy. I just- uh... not meant to talk about that, actually. But yeah, anyway. Point is, BIG announcement coming, so pay close attention! As my loyal sidekick and protégé, I, Hatchini Ayanami the Ostrich Fairy of Tokyo-3, do declare that you are to start... _ballet!_"

"... ... ..." says Kiri.

"An' you have to go, cause I already booked you into lessons, an' it would be really mean to squander that, an' then I'd have to do... uh... something. Dunno what. Maybe ask Little Mommy what to do if someone refuses presents."

Kiri blinks, confused. "Wait... what? You... you b-booked me into b-ballet classes? How? Don't... d-don't those cost m-money? And how w-were you allowed to do that?"

"Uh... not allowed to say the how. But yup, it's about 8000 yen a month. After all, you're my _sidekick_, an' that means I gotta look after you. And Stuff. So! Lessons start a week from now! I expect my apprentice to practice uber-hard, kay?"

Kiri gapes mutely at the phone as Hatchi hangs up, and tries to process what just happened.

"...ballet?"

**11.**

Clad in a white leotard and tutu, Kiri gasps for air. She has discovered two things. Firstly, that ballet is a lot harder than it looks. And secondly, that she can in fact hurt more than she had ever imagined was possible.

"Uun.." she whimpers. Her arms feel like jelly, her legs have gone numb from the waist down to the ankle, some horrible person has set her feet on fire and her waist feels like the time Naami "accidentally" jabbed her in the stomach with a hockey stick, only a hundred times worse.

"Come on, girls! We still have one more round of cool-down stretches to do before you can all go home! Everyone with me now. One... two..." The teacher is a middle-aged woman who appears to have a spine made of rubber, judging from how freakishly flexible she is. She smiles encouragingly at Kiri as she slides into a perfect example of the splits. Kiri groans and follows suit, getting as close to the splits as she can as her hips protest.

The next five minutes are a further eternity of hell on Earth, before finally the teacher lets them go. Kiri staggers back to the changing rooms, intent on nothing more than getting back into her normal clothing, picked up by her mother and _home_ to her _bed_. She studiously avoids thinking about the fact that she has another lesson on Wednesday, then another on Friday, and a fourth on Sunday morning. And then the week starts over again and...

Gritting her teeth with stubborn determination, Kiri holds her head high - well, slightly sagging due to exhaustion, but as high as she can without multiple parts of her body protesting - and stoically trudges towards her bag, wincing at every other step. She is almost there when a hand taps her shoulder and spins her round. She blearily processes what she is looking at, and her mouth drops open slightly.

"Why are you here?" Sasiriko asks, tilting her head, clad in a dark leotard and frilly tutu. Her long, stringy black hair is pinned back behind her head in a bun. Kiri swallows. "Um... Ha- a f-friend of mine... I wouldn't have... but... um... my mother said that it was impolite to refuse... and..."

Sasoriko frowns slightly, mulling this over, before her expression clears and she arches an eyebrow. "I see... _very_ nice. And of course, your parents wouldn't want to seem rude, refusing a gift... I assume you asked them first, and they refused? And then you mentioned something to Ayanami... I must admit, I'm _impressed_ at the level of influence you have over that girl. I'm not sure I could handle her so well."

Kiri has the horrible sinking feeling she often gets when talking to Sasoriko, telling her that the pale girl has just reached an entirely logical conclusion which is horribly, horribly wrong, and which paints Kiri in a light that she does not at all like the look of. And that nothing she can do or say will convince Sasoriko differently. She hangs her head resignedly. "Um... something l-like that.M-maybe. Do you come here often?"

"Every weekday, plus Saturdays," Sasoriko replies. She tilts her head again, looking Kiri up and down appraisingly. "You look awful. Was this your first day?" She smiles thinly. "We see a lot of girls come in here hoping to be pretty ballerinas. They last for one session, then never come back. I hope I see more of you, though. You're... _interesting_."

Kiri is too tired to react much to the last part. She registers the first, though, and wonders incredulously who would subject themselves to this torture on a regular basis. One name flashes immediately to mind, and a vague hope forms that maybe, if she tells Hatchi, the blunette will take Sasoriko as her 'sidekick' and leave Kiri alone. She doesn't say this out loud, though, and instead opts to answer.

"Ah... yes, my first day. Um... I'm a b-bit tired..." she sits on the bench, and groans with relief as her legs stop protesting as much. "Uhh... h-how do you d-_do_ this every day?"

Sasoriko gives another thin smile, rises onto her toes and lifts one leg up. And up. And up, until she can lean her head forward to rest on her knee. Kiri gawks at the girl - tiny, petite, pale and more than a little sickly looking. Certainly not athletic. Yet Kiri can't even _imagine_ doing that - she would fall over if she tried. Flawlessly graceful, Sasoriko brings the leg down again and smirks. "Long years of practice," she says diffidently, obviously enjoying the look on Kiri's face.

"The t-teacher did that too... are your s-spines made of r-rubber or something?" Sasoriko's smirk widens slightly. "No, you have to wait until you're 14 before they do that. That's when your main growth spurt finishes; otherwise you're stunted for life." She nods respectfully at Kiri. "I'll see you again... when?"

"Um... I have four l-lessons a week, on-" Sasoriko cuts her off with a wave of her hand. "I know the schedule, I started on that as well. On Wednesday, then." She leaves, and Kiri turns back to the arduous task of putting her clothes back on, stifling a moan.

**12.**

"Heeeey~"

Kiri doesn't even bother to flinch this time."Hello Hatchi," she says resignedly. Hatchi huffs, "Noooo~," she corrects, "you gotta say 'Reporting for debriefing, Your Great Ostrich-Fairyness!' Like that. But I'll let you off this once, cause you're meant to be tellin' me how your day went. Specifically your first ballet lesson. Did you practice reeee~ally hard?"

Kiri snuggles further back into the mound of pillows she is lying in. "I'm sort of exhausted..." she breaks off into a yawn momentarily before continuing, "but yes, I practiced hard." She isn't sure why she's being so accommodating to the other girl, but she's too tired for introspection right now. Also, she has a feeling that if she puts the phone down, Hatchi will just keep ringing back until she's forced to physically unplug it, which would involve getting up and moving around. That option isn't one she even wants to consider. Much easier to just tell Hatchi what she wants to hear, then go back to sleep.

"Exhausted?" Hatchi asks, a faint note of confusion in her voice. "But... but that's only like two hours _at most_of exercise! You must be reeee~ally out of shape!" There is the sound of tapping from over the phone. "Hmm... maybe I was goin' soft on you, only bookin' two hours a day. I gotta book you with more stuff!" Kiri very nearly starts to cry, before a spark of hope dawns.

"Um... y-you know, there's already a g-girl in my b-ballet class who's d-doing ballet every d-day already. She's called S-Sasoriko, and she w-works _really_ hard on it, s-so she might make a b-better-"

For the second time that day, Kiri is cut off. "Nah," dismisses Hatchi, "I looked at her already, when I was checkin' out all your classmates. She's interesting, but... nope. She's totally not the right kinda person to be a plucky sidekick. It'd just be _wrong_." She hums thoughtfully. "Actually, come to think of it... fair warnin'; you an' her might end up havin' to do an epic fight to the death someday. I mean, she's totally the type to end up workin' for the big baddy at some point. Or... hmm... maybe _bein'_ the big baddy, or... oh oh oh! She could be the snarky tech support back at base! Yeah, an' then you can talk to her over the radio when we're on missions an' stuff. Yeah!"

The phone line cuts off, and Kiri is left with the disturbing feeling that she may have just set in motion a series of events that will lead to Sasoriko plotting to kill her painfully. With a sound that is half-frustration and half-sob, she falls back onto her nest of pillows and lets sleep engulf her.

It isn't until the next morning that it occurs to her to be worried about the fact that Hatchi had looked into her classmates' backgrounds.

**13.**

Time passes, and the morning of her birthday finds Kiri happily skipping down a street in the centre of town. She has woken up to a pile of carefully wrapped presents, and had her favourite breakfast, and now her mommy and daddy are taking her around to do some shopping and then to a play centre all afternoon! And her ballet lessons had been getting better, too. She can _almost_ manage the splits now, and her balance is _way_ better! Yes, today is definitely the Best Day Ever.

This impression is abruptly terminated when something as hard and unyielding as an iron bar slams into her stomach, knocking her breath away as she folds around it like a rag doll. The whole street suddenly blurs sideways, and something vaguely behind her and to her right explodes. She tries to scream, but is too winded to do much more than squeak.

The sudden sideways motion comes to a halt, and Kiri desperately tries not to vomit from the fear and nausea as the world spins and pretty colours flash in front of her eyes. A vaguely roundish dark blur moves into her field of vision, and something dark approaches her. Cloth touches her eyes and everything goes black. A blindfold. Kiri goes rigid with fright and fights down a sob. Terrified, she lashes out blindly, kicking at the person in front of her. She hits nothing but air, and arms encircle her from behind with no warning, hoisting her up and over a shoulder.

Voices chatter to each other, hard, grating and metallic. She doesn't catch the distorted words, distracted as she is by frantically trying to breathe, stay calm and not faint. Another explosion sounds in the distance, but it fades as she is hoisted higher up on her kidnapper's shoulder and feels the lurch of sudden acceleration.

The trip is mercifully short, though the occasional plunge of freefall or violent change in direction makes it seem like a lot longer, and has Kiri hanging on for dear life, trying not to be sick. Finally, it ends and she is deposited on a hard floor. Quiet sounds of movement settle around her for a minute before the blindfold is abruptly yanked off.

"SURPRISE!"

Kiri stares at the two widely grinning faces framed by cobalt locks, lets out a little sigh, and takes the only sensible reaction to the situation. She faints.

**14.**

Voices stir her. Gradually, she climbs towards the noise and the light, a distant part of her mind considering it to be somewhat depressing that she has +_experience_+ at doing this. Her eyes flutter open, and are trapped in crimson. Rei blinks down at her for a second and smiles before glancing up at something across the room. Kiri is, she realises, lying on the other girl's lap.

"S'okay, Hatchi! She's awake, you can put the zappy things down!" She nods encouragingly and turns back to Kiri. "You gotta stop doin' that, it makes people all worried. Hatchi was goin' frantic. But yeah, we decided to throw you a surprise birthday party! Only it had to be a _surprise_ surprise, so we couldn't let you know it was us before you got here. Cause that would sorta make it not a surprise. See?"

Another blunette bounces into view - the first time she's seen the two together, Kiri realises. Hatchi grins widely. "Alsoalso, we _kinda_ left a sorta fakeish ransom note for you. Cause that way, everyone will think you were kidnapped, an' you get to be on the news an' stuff! An' that might get you over your shyness, which is totally not Hatchi Girl sidekick behaviour. Or even Ostrich Fairy behaviour." She nods decisively. "Yup, definitely gonna have to train you outta that. Only not right now, cause we got birthday stuff for you!"

The sisters shuffle back a little as Kiri pulls herself upwards into a sitting position and looks around. The room is large and well furnished, though she can't place exactly where they are. Sasoriko is sitting a little way off, looking decidedly disgruntled, and Hikari is nearby as well. Kiri clears her throat in confusion, nodding at them. "Um... why...?"

"Weee~ell, it's your birthday, right? So we thought that if we were gonna have a party, we should bring your friends along as well!" Kiri nods absently, still trying to place where she is. Abruptly, her brain catches up with her ears and her eyes widen. She spins to face Hatchi, paling, "Wait, _ransom note?_"

"Uh huh!" The girl looks so innocently _cheerful_ that, despite every nerve in her body screaming that this was a bad idea, Kiri decided to drop it for now. "Um... okay... uh... w-where are we, exactly?"

Rei pipes up this time, as Kiri sees Hikari and Sasoriko notice her awakening and start to come over. "A biii~ig hotel type place. I can't remember the name, but we looked for a reee~eally expensive an' luxury one and booked it. Under false names, 'course. An' a couple of our sisters are keepin' Little Mommy busy so she doesn't find us here, cause then she'd be mad again, which would be bad." She grinned again, as cheerful as Kiri had ever seen her. "They must be havin' _so much fun!_"

Yui Ikari grips the bridge of her nose to try and stave off a pressure headache. The events of the day so far are _not_ helping her mood. The Ree breakout is... far from _ideal_, admittedly, but it has been almost seven months since the last one and try as she might, she can't really give the girls as much time as they deserve. No, that isn't _too_ stressful, and not even that unexpected.

However, the explosion reported ten minutes ago _is_. Especially since the report was forced to reach her by word of mouth, since all of the phone lines and computers in her vicinity keep acting up in ways that would be suspicious if there were a sliver of doubt as to the reason for it. She levels an annoyed glare at the nearest vent cover out of sheer frustration and wrenches her focus back onto what Maya is trying to tell her.

"Hang on, back up. The explosion I know about, but _what_ note?"

"Um... uh..." Maya stutters, and Yui belatedly tones down her glare by several degrees. It isn't really the assistant's fault, she has done nothing deserving of Yui's ire. Calming slightly, the mousy woman continues, "um... yes. The explosion was apparently a distraction for a young girl to be kidnapped. A ransom note was left, and... um... you had probably better see this for yourself, Dr Ikari." She proffers a sheet of paper - a scan of the note, not the real thing. Yui glances at it, looks up at Maya to reply, blinks and looks back. And stares. After a minute, she sighs quietly and hands it back.

"So. Given the wording and the..." she winced, "_crayon_ and _doodles_, I think we can probably make a fairly accurate judgement of who the kidnappers are. The girl?"

"Harasami, Dr Ikari. Kirima. One of Rei's friends, I believe - she was the one involved in the... uh... rabbit incident. She's also the one that Hatchi claimed as her sidekick." Yui winces again. That was not fun to clean up. "Joy. Any idea _why_ they've decided to kidnap her?" Maya bites her lip.

"It... seems to be the girl's ninth birthday today. It's possible that..." "Yes, yes, I can guess. Wonderful. In fact, I think I remember Hatchi mentioning something about it... urgh. Okay, get Gendo, let him know what's happening and get Section 2 out to find wherever they are. Preferably _before_ they start trying to give her presents. And get me a line to- why are you looking worried, Maya?"

"Um... .it's just that... Commander Ikari..." Yui squeezes her eyes tightly closed. "Let me guess. He's _also_ having a little trouble with phone lines and computers mysteriously playing up around him, yes?" The look on Maya's face is all she needs for an answer. "Damn. Fine, delegate to someone who isn't being harassed, and _find them_." Maya nods frantically and scurries off as Yui leans against the wall with a sigh. She definitely has a headache coming on.

A sixth sense developed from over a year's experience of Rei and her sisters prompts her to open her eyes. No sound, no movement nearby... but a pack of aspirin on a nearby table, and a glass of water. She considers them for a minute before gratefully taking two.

"Thank you, Kei." she sighs. There is no response - she didn't really expect one, to be honest - but nonetheless, she can almost feel the youngest Ree glowing with pride and satisfaction through from the walls. She gives the aspirin a few minutes to kick in and heads off to find Gendo. When she gets the girls back from this particular breakout, she vows, there are going to be _words_.

"So yeah. Little Mommy shouldn't be too much of a problem. An' it'll take the evil Section 2 goblins a while to find us without her helpin' organise everyone. An' Siyon's watchin' Daddy, so he can't help either." Hatchi casually turns a half cartwheel and balances on her fingers, swaying backwards and forth hypnotically as Kiri gapes.

"So!" Rei chirps, perkily. "You're nine today, right? Well, we got you _presents!_" She pulls out an envelope and happily hands it over. Kiri warily opens it, unsure of what to expect. It turns out to be a folder of glossy photographs, topped by...

"R-Rei... what does 'deed of property' mean?" Rei grins widely, in the slightly disturbing manner Kiri is beginning to get accustomed to. "I bought you a bit of land in Mongolia, 'cause it's really cheap after the Impact... um... and it's a bit radioactive but don't worry it'll be fine in a few years... so you can raise your own Mongolian steppe ponies! An' the radioactivity might give them superpowers, too! Uh... ignore the burnt bits, though. There were kinda some sorta bad people livin' there, but I paid a bit more an' the authorities got them to go away." She nods happily and Kiri gulps, resolving not to question how they had done so, or where Rei had gotten the money from. Sasoriko shoots her a narrowed glance, as if she's thinking the same thing. Though Kiri is willing to bet that the other girl thinks that she told Rei to do this, and is planning to build a missile silo there or something. She's beginning to understand how the petite, dark-haired girl views the world. "Thank you, Rei. I'll be very sure t-to, uh, t-take good c-care of it."

Rei retreats and Hatchi presents her gift in a surprisingly neatly wrapped box. Kiri opens this one even more dubiously, and gingerly strips away the wrapping. As soon as the contents come into view, she shrieks and drops it hastily. "H-h-hatchi! Y-you sh-shouldn't be g-giving me a g-gun! Th-that's +_illegal!_+" Hatchi throws her hands up, waving them frantically. "Nonono! S'okay, it's not a gun!" Kiri stops at this, and examines it again. Strangely shaped barrel, but definitely a barrel. Unmistakeable grip and trigger. She's fairly sure it's a gun, and eyes Hatchi dubiously. "Honest! It's a taser! Non-lethal!"

"A... taser?" Kiri has heard of them, of course. However... "aren't they... um... illegal?" Hatchi nods. "Yup, usually! But I got you a permit, so you can carry it! Alsoalso, if you move that little yellow switch on the side up, my _personal modifications_ turn on, an' it ramps up to-" Kiri gulps again and waves at her to stop, before managing a polite smile. "Um... th-thank you, Hatchi. I appreciate it." Hatchi winks happily and waits until Kiri gives in and tentatively slips the potentially lethal little device into her pocket before scurrying off over to Rei, who is rooting around in... some sort of box? With air holes? Kiri is distracted from watching them by Sasoriko and Hikari materialising nearby, willing to approach now that the Ree are no longer nearby.

"I... uh... didn't really get you anything," starts Hiraki, "I didn't know your birthday was coming up, and Rei sort of... kidnapped me- can someone explain why there are _two_ of her, please?" Kiri is too relieved at the missed opportunity for awkwardness to be offended. "Hatchi is R-Rei's sister. One of her sisters. The others are normally... um... ill. Sort of. They have to stay inside a lot, or it's not safe. She must have gotten special permission to come out for this." Not _technically_ a lie, as she hadn't said who Hatchi had gotten permission _from_.

Sasoriko nods calmly at this, and hands over an unwrapped book. A thick book. Finally, something she can appreciate. Kiri turns it over, staring at the rolling desert and enormous worm-like creature on the cover, and looks back up at Sasoriko. "You might find it... _entertaining_ to follow," says the black-haired girl with a conspiratorial smirk, and Kiri wonders exactly what is +i_n_+ the book. On the other hand, it does look interesting. She resolves to read it as soon as she has time, and begins to formulate a thank you which won't cause Sasoriko to assume she's an evil genius any more than she already does.

"Heeeey~!" Hatchi bounds into view. Holding...

"_What is that?_"

"It's a Flemish Giant!" Hatchi somehow manages to skip despite holding a rabbit that is almost half as large as she is. She deposits it at Kiri's feet cheerfully, where it seems remarkably untroubled by its situation and peacefully nibbles at her skirt. "Cause you like rabbits an' stuff, so we got some _really big_ rabbits for your party for you to hug an' stuff, while we set up the _show!_"

A cold, terrible, nameless dread settles at the base of Kiri's gut for all of a few seconds before she puts a name to it, the name being "Rei or one of her sisters with an _idea_." She opens her mouth to try and apologetically decline whatever the two have planned for her party, already knowing there is little to no point.

To be frank, the Section 2 agents smashing down the door as she starts to speak come as a bit of a relief.

**15.**

"Miss Harasami!" A man's hand closes on her upper arm, spinning Kiri around with more than a little undue force, and she finds herself looking up into an eager, bespectacled face. She squeaks and flinches, almost tripping over backwards in her haste to get away. "Wh-who are y-you, a-and why are you on s-school g-grounds?"

"Ah, yes," He clears his throat and adjusts his tie in mild discomfort, "I'm Koura Hirataki, from Tokyo-3 Evening News. Word has been spreading about the explosion in the town centre several days ago, and that you were reportedly kidnapped, with a ransom note left for your parents dictating the terms for your safe return. Would you care to comment on what those terms were, and what your experience with your captors was like?"

"I- I-" Kiri stutters, wide-eyed and terrified. She stumbles, trying to get her arm out of his grip, but the man has caught the scent of a story and refuses to let go. "What about the rumours that it was planned by NERV? We've also heard some mutterings about a Miss Ayanami, is the young girl really as dangerous as the stories make her out to be?"

"P-please let g-go of m-me!" Kiri wrenches her arm harder to no avail. Something about the manic glint in Hirataki's eye makes her want to be far, far away from him, and she fumbles in her pocket for something to hit his hand with to make him let go. Her questing fingers close around something hard and she pulls it out to pry his grip open as he continues relentlessly.

"What about the Ikaris themselves? Has their adoptive daughter given you any insight into the big names in charge of the city?" Something on the hard thing yields to pressure as she brings it up and Kiri's eyes widen in horrified realisation as it kicks slightly in her hand. "Do you think tha-ugh!" Hirataki jolts as the taser prongs earth 1,200 volts through the reporter, sending him spasming to the floor where he lies mostly still, with the occasional slight twitch. Mortified, Kiri looks at the taser in her hand with utter horror. She just _tased_ a _grown-up!_ Mama will be _furious_ and she'll get into all sorts of trouble and she might even be _arrested_ and-

A slight sound makes her look up and meet wide brown eyes. Kiri very nearly bursts into tears at their owner. "_Wow_," breathes Sasoriko, "That was _cold_. I... I never thought you'd get your hands dirty like that." Kiri makes a slight sound of protest, turning to explain, and Sasoriko takes a hasty step backwards. "... pl-please don't point that thing at me, Kiri. I... I promise I won't tell anyone!" She waves her hands frantically and relaxes slightly as Kiri drops the taser as if it were a snake. "Um... I'll... uh... go and tell Rei that you want her to come and h-help. A-and make excuses for you to the teacher. Um... well done, I suppose?" She turns and leaves at a near-run. Kiri slumps. This is _not_ going to help her attempts at convincing Sasoriko she isn't evil.

**16.**

Kiri kicks her legs idly as she lies on bed, deeply absorbed in Paul's first meeting with the Freman. The plot is complex, but enthralling, and she relishes the feel of once again burying herself in a fictional world where she doesn't have to think about the problems inherent in this one - something she hasn't had nearly enough time to do lately. Though her problems have gotten a lot less since meeting Rei... or have they just changed to different sorts of problems? The nine-year old muses on this for a few seconds before shrugging practically and diving back into the desert-world of Arrakis.

Her reading is interrupted again, however, as her door slides open a minute or two later. "Kirima." Her Mama's voice was flat, with a faint tinge of disbelief, "would you care to explain the package I just received? And the deeds of property in _your name_ for somewhere in _Mongolia?_."

Oh. Well. Darn. "Um... R-Rei got it for me for my b-birthday, um... to b-breed ponies o-on. She w-would probably be upset if I said no, so I accepted it. That was right, wasn't it, Mama?"

Her mother blinks. Opens her mouth. Closes it again. After some consideration, she speaks hesitantly. "I think... do you think Rei is a... does Rei ever scare you, Kiri?" Kiri shakes her head. Sometimes the things Rei _does_ can be scary, but Rei herself has always been... been... been the same girl who rescued her all those months ago. Who protected her from bullies even when Kiri didn't like her. Who tries to help, even if she's not always sure how. She tries to explain this to her mother, but she can't find the right words to build around the shape of the _knowing_, so it comes out garbled and doesn't make sense. Still, it seems to satisfy her mama, who nods uncertainly.

"Alright. As long as you're sure... I'll turn a blind eye to the more... boisterous... things that your friend does. And I'll make sure your father does as well. But Kiri, if she ever... ever hurts you, or anything... tell me. Promise?" Kiri nods solemnly, if somewhat doubtfully. She's not sure what her mama is talking about, but she knows she's being trusted with something responsible, like taking care of Hoshi. "And... you might be confused about how you're feeling, but... I want you to know that I'll love you no matter what choices you make, okay? And if you need anyone to talk to, I'm always here."

Kiri considers this for a second before connecting the dots and flushing crimson. "Mama! I do _not_ have a _crush_ on _Rei!_" "Of course not, sweetheart, of course not. Just remember, I love you anyway." Kiri groans and buries her head in her pillow as her mother leaves. Is it _possible_, she wonders, for her life to get any _more_ embarrassing?

The phone rings. Casting her eyes skywards, Kiri picks it up, valiantly hoping against hope that her silent question isn't about to be answered.

"Heeeey~"

_Damnit_.


	3. Chapter 3

**17.**

It is a wet, humid, dreary Monday morning - though one mercifully free of cicadas, for once - that sees Kiri trudge sullenly into school, shivering slightly and nursing her hand. Hatchi has not relented in the recent run of bad weather, and thus she has been running in the rain each morning. Three times round the block is bad enough when it's sunny. Rain makes it a thoroughly miserable experience, especially in conjunction with the humidity making her sweat, the material of her training clothes sticking uncomfortable to her skin. And then to cap off the morning, Hoshi had taken offence to her dripping on him, and scratched her.

All in all, Kiri is not having a good day. Seeing a bone-dry Sasoriko step out of a sleek black car as she reaches the gates does not improve her mood, and she levels a glare at the pale girl. Well, a disapproving look. Mildly. Though... it's not really Sasoriko's fault, so that was sort of mean. She bites her lip as a reprimand and offers an apologetic look to make up for it.

Sasoriko, smoothing her skirt down, entirely fails to notice either, and only notices Kiri as the mousy girl walks up to her. "Oh, hello. You look _awful_." She examines Kiri critically, "Did you study for the test?"

Eyes widening, Kiri stops dead and groans. She hasn't, Hatchi has been piling on the workload lately. Not waiting to see the expression on Sasoriko's face - a patronising, superior smirk, she can guess - she heads inside at a quick trot. Maybe if she hurries she can get in a few minutes skim reading to reaffirm herself on the basics.

Her plan is derailed, however, by what is waiting for her in class. Or more accurately, waiting for all of them.

"Hi! My name is Emi Akaho," she introduces herself brightly. Her dark brown hair is too short to really be fashionable, but not short enough that she could be said to be making a statement with it, and her features are plain. "I've been staying with my gran in Tokyo-2 for a while, but my dad just got transferred here from a year-long deployment in Indonesia, and it looks like it'll be permanent, so I've come to stay with him and hopefully settle down here. I hope I'll fit in, please take good care of me!" She smiles easily, and takes a seat near the front of the classroom, two desks across from Kiri. Whispering and muttered conversation springs up around the back of the room, and Kiri catches a few fragments of the popular cliques assessing the new student.

"Weirdo... dad's in the JSSDF, what a freak... you see her hair? What's wrong with her... didn't mention a mother, do you think she's..."

Evidently, the new girl hears them as well, because her smile falters somewhat and she ducks her head, concentrating on her textbooks. Before the murmurs can get too far, however, Hikari comes to her rescue.

"Shut up, everyone, there will be no gossiping or harassment! That means you lot loitering at the back, be quiet! Iwowashi, if you even _think_ of throwing that spitball, you will regret it. Suzuhara, Aida, put the camera _away_." She surveys the now-silent class fiercely, and nods. "Alright then... Stand! Bow! Sit!"

Class begins, and manages almost five whole minutes without interruption. Kiri is just beginning to feel a niggling quiver of something being off, when the door slams open and Rei bursts into the room. She is drenched to the bone, has a suspicious black stain up the left side of her skirt and is holding a soggy piece of toast, which she crams into her mouth on the way to her desk.

Swallowing, she bounces on the balls of her feet cheerfully and winks at the class. "Ran over someone on the way to school," she explains cheerfully.

"Don't you mean 'into'?" says Hikari, squinting.

"Nope!"

The new girl, Emi, stares. Confronted by a blue-haired, red-eyed, pale-skinned hurricane of energy, there is little else she _can_ do, and her gaze stays fixed on Rei as she trots over to her desk as if welded there. Reclining slightly in the chair, Rei catches sight of her, and _grins_. Emi blanches and hastily looks away, trying not to shudder. Leaning back slightly to get a clear line of view, Kiri shoots Rei a mildly chiding look, which is responded to with a carefree grin and a shrug.

Sighing resignedly, Kiri turns back to her schoolwork. This is perhaps fortunate, as it means she misses the calculating look Sasoriko gives her, or the note she scribbles to herself in a leather-bound notebook. There are many such notes within the thin volume. Most of them concern Kiri in one way or another.

Something vaguely resembling a tentative peace descends on the room once more, and class resumes.

**18.**

The Doppler shift in tone of the whirring hum behind her gives Kiri just enough warning to duck as the glowing red plastic arcs overheard. She feels the wind of its passage ruffle her hair and desperately forces her flagging muscles onward, producing a burst of speed for a few seconds. She pays for it, of course, as the adrenaline rush wears off and the jarring impacts of the track resound up through tired feet and aching calves once again.

"Awesome, Kiri! You're doin' great! Just half a dozen more laps and you're done!"

Kiri doesn't glance back at the sound of Rei's voice. It's not that it doesn't spur her up and raise her spirits that her friend believes in her. It's not that she harbours any sort of grudge at the girl for agreeing to supervise Kiri's training on Hatchi's behalf - indeed, she's grateful. Rei could surely find better uses for her time than this, it's a huge favour to Kiri that she chooses to instead come here and help her improve.

It's just that, for reasons that Kiri cannot fathom, Rei's manner of encouragement in this case consists of chasing after her wearing a Darth Vader mask and taking swipes at her with a plastic lightsaber.

A plastic lightsaber that can somehow cut through tree branches.

Still, she knows Rei isn't trying very hard. She's just... motivating. And helping Kiri practice dodging. She forces screaming muscles into a jump to avoid a low swing that is more felt than seen and passes the start line, beginning her ninth lap.

"Rei..." she pants, gasping for air, "it's nearly... time for... classes... to start..." She stumbles, and almost falls, but a black mask topped with blue hair appears in her peripheral vision, red light sweeping towards her. She shrieks, catching herself on her hands and somehow driving her body up and over in a handstand, landing on her feet in a dead run.

"Woo! That was incredible, way to go!" Rei's praise - genuinely impressed, Kiri can tell - puts a warm glow in her heart. A glow that is wiped out as the albino continues. "But I promised Hatchi that you'd run fifteen laps, so fifteen laps you run!"

Fifteen laps, Kiri thinks, after gym class this morning, will kill her. Even now, her nerves are screaming, informing her brain that it has written cheques her body can't cash. Hatchi would scoff at this, and maybe even up the number to twenty. But Rei, Kiri is sure, is reasonable. Sympathetic. Kind.

"I-if..." she wheezes, "if I run fifteen... I'll miss lunch... and be too tired... to bake tonight."

Rei considers this as Kiri's feet pound the tarmac of the track, the spring in her step having faded entirely during the fourth lap. Sweat drenches her gym shirt, and her shorts stick uncomfortably to her upper thighs. Rei, by contrast, appears as fresh as a daisy, and is indeed not even breathing hard as she effortlessly keeps pace with Kiri, even with her vision obstructed by the Vader mask.

"...you gotta good point there. Okay, howsabout you finish _ten_ laps, an' I tell Hatchi you did fifteen, an' you bring me in twice as many cookies as usual tomorrow. With icing."

It is not a question. But Kiri doesn't mind. Baking is, after all, peaceful. Fun. And she was planning on making several trays anyway. Sparing her energy for running, she nods, and marshals her strength as the start line approaches. If she's going to slack off to an extent, she might as well put some effort in to make up for it.

Rei's whoops of encouragement follow her as she breaks into a sprint for the last lap.

Sasoriko raises an eyebrow as Kiri struggles futilely with her clothes. Her hands are actually shaking from exhaustion, and she has unsuccessfully tried three times so far to untie her trainers. The dark-haired girl sighs. She is not, generally speaking, one for charity. However, she knows what it is like to be forced into exercise. That Kiri is _choosing_ to expend this level of effort... it speaks volumes of her level of dedication, and Sasoriko cannot help but be a little impressed. She slides her hockey skirt off over her knee-high socks, frowning slightly at several new bruises from practice that decorate her hips and thighs. Reaching a decision, she stands and walks over.

"Here," she says. "I'll help." Kneeling, she quickly and efficiently unties the other girl's trainers, noting the grateful smile she receives in thanks with a quiet internal smile of her own. Anything that gets her further into Kiri's good graces, she muses, is probably worth doing. Standing, she helps Kiri upright and begins to ease the trembling girl out of her shirt.

For Kiri, time seems to slow, moments mired in molasses as the events of the next few minutes unfold. The door edges open, and two figures walk in, talking. One is tall and solidly built, wearing a tracksuit. The other is slighter, almost scrawny, and walks with a birdlike pace. He holds a camera in one hand, and is waving it animatedly as he argues with his companion.

"...getting this _totally_ wrong, I'm telling you! Blue hair, freakishly strong, she is _not normal!_ I see death in those eyes!"

"Ken, stop being an idiot. Of course you see death in those eyes, she's a girl! They're all homicidal! I mean, just look at the class rep, or the... ice... ... queen... ... ..." He trails off, and stares. Kiri is suddenly keenly aware of the ache of her arms, held over her head as Sasoriko pulls her shirt off, the cool air of the room on her exposed skin and bra, and Sasoriko's rather bony chest pressed against her back. It occurred to her, numbly, that this probably looks rather like something it isn't. Silence reigns for a moment, broken only by the faint, warbled strains of someone singing in the showers.

Kensuke's reaction, when he breaks the paralysis of shock, only supports Kiri's view. He absently brings his camera up for a better angle, eyes bugging. "Homicidal?" he queries, "or ho-"

"_What are you doing in here?_" Sasoriko shrieks, hands twitching, obviously undecided between covering her panties and grabbing her hockey stick. Both boys back away nervously, fearful of the feminine wrath before them, but unwilling to actually leave.

"I-I-I," Toji stammers as Kensuke gestures wildly backwards. "Door!" he exclaims, "Sign! Uh... male, it said- we thought-" His eyes are still fixed on Kiri, attempting to cover her chest and hide behind Sasoriko, and the latter, who has apparently forgotten modesty in favour of sheer fury.

"_GET OUT NOW!_" she screams, snatching up the hockey stick and surging forward. The first blow aptly demonstrates why the hockey team call her "Reaper", catching Kensuke across the shoulder.

"See what I mean!" hollers Toji as they run. "HomicidAAH!" Sasoriko catches him a glancing blow to the ear, cutting off his rebuke, before the pair scramble out of the door and disappear down the hall. Breathing hard, seething internally, she turns back to Kiri, throwing the hockey stick hard against the wall in frustration.

"Argh!" she hisses in exasperation. "Of all the damned- Kiri? Are you okay?"

It quickly becomes clear that she is not. The mousy-haired girl is standing motionless, hugging herself, breathing shallow and fast and staring blankly forward. Sasoriko mutters a word her parents would be shocked to learn she knew and gently shakes her friend.

"Um... Kiri? Kiri, come on, please don't hyperventilate or... or break down, or... um... uh... look, I'll... I'll get Rei over here, okay? I'll call Rei, and she can... um... do... something. To help. Okay?" This seems to get through, and Kiri's breathing evens out, her gaze returning to focus on Sasoriko, then the walls and ceiling. She blinks once or twice, slowly and blearily.

"Rei...?" she breathes, then snaps into focus. Her eyes fix on Sasoriko with an expression she has never seen before on her friend. "Th-they said s-something about a s-sign. On the d-door. G-go look, p-please."

Sasoriko almost refuses, or questions the request. But something flashes across Kiri's face again, something uncomfortably similar to the expression Sasoriko had caught a glimpse of as the mousy-haired girl was being harassed by the reporter.

The reporter she had tased.

Slipping hastily back into her hockey skirt, Sasoriko does as she's told.

"...yes, it looks like they were telling the truth", she says. "The boys sign is on the door, and... urgh, honestly. Some complete idiot seems to think that drawing a huge... thingy... on it is witty. I bet the girls sign has big... um..." She closes the door, carefully approaching Kiri, who has yet to move from the spot she was standing when the two boys entered. But there is something subtly different about the way she is standing, and her expression...

...her expression is totally, utterly blank. Completely impassive. Kiri closes her eyes and takes a short breath.

"Rei!" she calls. Sasoriko opens her mouth to point out that Rei went off on her own after she met Kiri at the track to walk her back to the changing rooms, just as the girl in question pokes her head out of the showers, soapy lather in her hair and Darth Vader mask hanging around her neck, lopsided.

"Mm hmm?"

Kiri's voice is quiet, but firm. "Two boys just walked into the changing rooms. And saw us. Half naked." Rei's eyes narrow, and she cracks her knuckles, but Kiri waves a hand hastily. "It wasn't their fault. Someone switched the signs on the doors. Deliberately, as a prank."

Rei nods slowly. "Uh huh. Okay. An' you want me to..."

"Find m-me whoever s-switched the signs. A-ask them - politely - why they th-thought it w-was an amusing idea. Inform them - f-firmly - that it was n-not."

Sasoriko let out a tense breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. Okay, she thinks. She seems calm. No-one is going to get tased. Everything is good.

"And th-then _hang them upside-down from a tree_."

Sasoriko stays very, very still. It appears, she muses, that Kiri is _slightly_ more annoyed than she is letting on. Rei, on the other hand, grins. Or at least, the corners of her mouth turn up and all her teeth are bared. With a jaunty salute and a cheerful whistle, she disappears back into the showers.

For the briefest of moments, Sasoriko almost feels sympathy for the prankster.

**19.**

Glancing up and down the corridor one last time, Toji follows Kensuke into the spare classroom. The door shuts quietly, and Toji gives a hurried look around the empty room. "Okay, clear," he mutters. "Now can I see?"

There is a click, as Kensuke pulls out his camera, and plugs some headphones in. "Just let me rewind it... mmm. Yep. Mmmm."

Toji cranes to watch over his scrawny friend's shoulder, and grins appreciatively. "Heh, cool. Wouldn't think she'd be so shy with those things." Kensuke nods distractedly, and Toji continues, "Ayanami's better, though. Still... heh. Not bad. Definitely worth the Ice Queen freaking out." He rubs the side of his head gingerly, wincing slightly as he does so.

Kensuke nods. "Hey, if you squint and... I think you might be able to... yeah, I think her bra's a little bit see-through."

There is a look of suspicion on the taller boy's face. "I don't think so. I mean, it's all... there."

"Nuh uh! Look! There!"

"How can you tell on this screen? Too small."

"It's there, I'm telling you. It's a sort of darker patch of nipple!"

Toji begins to argue, but is distracted as, onscreen, Kiri reflexively jerks backwards as Sasoriko lunges for the hockey stick. Both boys watch riveted, argument forgotten, until Sasoriko re-enters the screen, intent on murder.

You know..." muses Kensuke, "...we might be onto something here. Iwowashi is sweet on the Ice Queen, right? How much d'you think he'd pay to see this?"

Toji blinks. "On one hand, money. On the other, her. With a hockey stick. Coming _after us_."

The other boy adjusts his glasses. "Oh, come on," he says. "I'm not stupid. It's not like I'd show it to her, and... come on. Grandfighter IV comes out this month!"

The impending argument is interrupted by the bell, signalling the start of class. Neither of the boys want to risk Horaki's wrath, and they hurry quickly back to the classroom. They arrive to an instantly riveting spectacle.

"Backstabbing little thief!"

One of the members of the popular clique - Sumiko, Toji vaguely recalls, though her first name eludes him - is shrieking at another. Sitting down next to a boy he vaguely recognises, he mutters, "What the hell is going on?" The boy glances at him distractedly.

"From what I can tell, Sumiko lost a butterfly clip earlier this week, and it just fell out of Kitsune Tetsu's pocket," he replies, "but she's saying she's innocent, and... uh..."

"Talk about a poisonous friend!" Sumiko spits venomously, "pretending to suck up to me just to get your hands on my stuff!"

The other girl, Tetsu, sneers at her. "Like I would even _want_ your trash, Chichi. If I was going to take some jewellery, it wouldn't be from you."

"How dare you! This is high quality, diamond-studded-"

"Oh come on. That's a lie. They're not real, stupid."

"They are so!"

"God, can't you even tell when you've been ripped off? My dad's a jeweller, you stupid idiot. It's fake."

"You spiteful bitch! You were complimenting me on it a few days ago! And... and then it disappeared just after! You're just trying to put me off it cause you want it for yourself!" Enraged, Sumiko aims a slap at the other girl, who shrieks, grabbing a handful of Sumiko's hair and pulling viciously.

"Heh... sweet, a catfight!" Iwowashi laughs from the other side of the tussle. "Kensuke, man, are you filming this?" Hastily, Kensuke lowers his camera out of sight below the desk as two vicious glares are turned on him. Satisfied that he is not, both girls slap the class joker soundly before going back to their bickering.

Toji glances around, taking in the reactions of the class. Near the front of the class, Sasoriko Yochi leans forward on the desk, grinning widely. She murmurs something with a smirk to her friend Harasami, who - and Toji's eyes cannot help but dip below the mousy girl's face at the memory - was the one in the locker room with her. With the... hugging. And the lack of a shirt. She seems to be trying to ignore the budding fight, with limited success. Against the wall, the new girl is observing with a slightly lopsided grin - a half-smile that seems to suggest either bemusement or satisfaction.

Nearer by, Horaki is watching with a torn expression, trying to decide between stepping in and stopping the pair, or watching in approval. Toji hides a grin - it looks like the Class Rep isn't a total stick in the mud, after all. Kensuke, beside him, has tentatively raised the camera enough to keep filming, and is watching the catfight with a slightly dreamy look.

Rolling his eyes and shrugging laconically, Toji settles down to watch.

**20.**

Sasoriko doesn't quite manage to hold back a moan of pleasure as she savours the moist, sweet offering. "What did you say you called these again?"

"Albinis. They're m-my own recip-pe."

"Albinis?" Sasoriko examines the snack critically. It is a dense, sweet sponge with a crisp tan layer on top, with... she nibbles... yes, those are pieces of chocolate in it. Her eyes roll back slightly as the flavour hits her tastebuds. "Mmmm... what does that mean?"

"What, albini? Um... it's a word I... um... m-made up. It's sh-short for albino b-brownie, see, because the c-cocoa in the original brownie recipe was far too strong, and it was overwhelming the other flavours," Her voice speeds up enthusiastically, "So I tried rebalancing the ratios, but it just wasn't working - either there was too much, and it was too rich, or there was too little, and it interacted negatively with the other elements. So eventually I thought of taking it out altogether, and replacing the nuts with chocolate to compensate. Of course, that meant rebalancing the lost ingredient mass with substitutes, and then I had to experiment a little to find the right baking time and temperature for them, but- um..."

Sasoriko is staring blankly, with a slightly glazed look. "Um... I... modif-fied an existing r-recipe," Kiri simplifies, "With... cooking stuff. That I know."

"I... see."

An awkward silence falls. Kiri swallows, and checks the oven temperature again. She's been to the other girl's house a few times, and they seemed to be a nice enough family, who had dinner together and had asked her how she knew Sasoriko and were... well, vaguely approving that she kept up the same ballet schedule as their daughter. Her eyes wander around the immaculate dining room , a far cry from the lived in place which adjoins the place at Kiri's house. A Western-style table is surrounded by high-backed chairs, the floorboards are dark wood, and the walls are pure white, broken only by a few traditional wall-hangings, and a single family picture. It really is a room which is used for eating, and nothing else.

A happy moan from Sasoriko draws her attention back to the pale girl, who is now halfway through the plate. "S-Sasoriko, if you eat them all now, you w-won't have any l-left," she teases. Sasoriko swallows.

"So? You're making me some more. Uh- thank you, by the way. These are _gorgeous_."

"Yes, but..." Kiri thinks fast, and then grins, "If you don't help me with my maths, I won't make you any more of them after you finish those."

Sasoriko pauses, considering this. "...okay, fine. But... let me finish these off first? Please?" Kiri smiles and relents, well accustomed of the common initial reaction to her baking. "Alright. C-call me when you're finished, I need to go to the loo." She sets off through the house, letting her eyes and thoughts wander once more.

One of the things that Kiri has never really got used to is how _large_ this house is. Quite apart from the echoing hallways and the immaculately tiled and matted floors, she can look out the window, and see the gardens, and the traditional wall that surrounded them.

Back home, everything fits snugly; there's enough space for her and Mum and a bit left over. Here... she shivers slightly, comparing her tiny friend to this hollow place.

... a place which is _rather lacking_ in easy-to-find toilets, too. Kiri grimaces. You shouldn't get lost in someone's house when you were looking for the toilet!

There is a clock, a free-standing grandfather clock, at the end of the hallway, its resonant ticks the only noise she can hear. Frowning, Kiri bites her lip. Maybe she isn't remembering where she's going properly. Pausing for a moment, she turns, and after a moment of hesitation, slides the door next to her open.

Two pairs of eyes pin her to the spot, the adults in the room abruptly halting their conversation to see who the intruder is. Kiri stumbles back slightly under the intense gazes - it is suddenly very clear where her friend got her dissecting stare from - and tries not to panic.

Sasoriko's mother is tall and angular, with sleeker black hair much like her daughter's. Her father is shorter, and balding, with the sort of predatory glasses that ambitious businessmen have. Kiri regards him warily, remembering cold blue eyes, like her own in colour but anathematic in feeling, looking at her from behind such glasses the last time her father visited.

"Um... I- uh- s-sor-rry, I-I w-was look-k-king for th-the t-toilet, and... uh... I g-got a bit- um..." she stutters, face flaming as she backs hurriedly away to get away from the stares.

"Down the hall to the right, second on the left," Sasoriko's father calls after her. Regaining her composure out of sight, Kiri calls back a quick "Th-thank you!" before stumbling away from the room.

Sasoriko has finished by the time she gets back, and is waiting impatiently. "You took your time," she begins as soon as Kiri steps through the kitchen door, "I was going to start without- you look like you've seen a ghost. Is something wrong?"

"N-no. I just had a run-in with your p-parents."

"Huh. Yes, I suppose," a flash of resentment flashes across Sasoriko's features, "they can be a little intimidating if you're not used to them." She pats the seat next to her. "Now, you wanted help with your maths? I'll trade you for English later, I can't get the hang of all the stupid tenses. But first, maths. You're stuck on geometry, right?"

Kiri nods, taking a seat beside her friend and looking at the open textbook. Sasoriko has highlighted several areas of the equations in different colours. "Okay, it's actually very simple. You start like this..."

Sasoriko is a good teacher. Kiri is so absorbed by the time half an hour has passed that she barely remembers to take her baking out of the oven in time.

**21.**

Two days later, and the whispering and subtle glances still haven't died down. Things were, Sasoriko has to admit, actually somewhat enjoyable for the rest of the day after what she has come to internally refer to as The Incident. She'd gotten approving looks, even a few congratulations from the other girls in the class, and the various idiot factions were avoiding her.

However, the cliques were still cliques, and the brief period of shared righteous anger and proud sisterhood had not lasted through the night. She'd heard four comments by lunchtime about her legs, chest and choice in panties. None were positive.

And if her role in The Incident had raised her ire, Kiri had become positively monosyllabic. Every time Sasoriko tried to raise the subject with her, she simply turned crimson, hid behind her hair and refused to say a word. She was, Sasoriko reflected, probably making up for the drop in her act that ordering Rei on the prankster had entailed.

Though... something still doesn't seem right. Mentally, Sasoriko plays through The Incident again. The two stooges walking in, their eyes bugging out and sweeping over her and Kiri... mostly Kiri. Mostly Kiri's developing chest. Kiri's _unfair_ developing chest, where her own is still-

Cutting off that line of thought as unproductive, she fast-forwards a little and recalls two details she hadn't really noticed at the time. One, the faint singing in the showers was Rei, which is probably how Kiri knew to call for her. But more importantly, two...

...there had been a camera pointed at Kiri. While she was half naked. A camera held, no less, by _Aida_, possibly the most annoying and immature boy on the planet that wasn't Shiro. And yet... and yet Kiri's eyes, horror-filled and utterly _mortified_, had been riveted, not on Kensuke or the camera, but...

Kiri can feel the dark eyes of Sasoriko on the back of her neck. It is an unwelcome feeling. It is also a sadly common one. Any moment now, she's going to come up with some crazy assertion which Kiri will never be able to persuade her otherwise and then she'll have to put up with allegations of malevolence or...

"Toji. You _like_ him."

... eeep. Um. Right. Uh. Kiri's thoughts are a whir, as she tries to work out how to deny it when... uh... um... it's s-s-sort of true. Well, he is tall and sporty and on the basketball team and... she realises that now isn't the time, and she probably should start denying. Stammering something at first that even she doesn't understand and flushing crimson, she eventually manages to get her mouth working, "N-no! I d-d-don't l-like h-him... well, I d-don't _dis_like him, b-but I d-don't _like_ l-like him! Uh- I'm n-not saying he's- I w-wouldn't- he- he-"

She tails off at Sasoriko's flat stare. She isn't used to denying _true_ things from the other girl. It's a weird experience. Like being savaged by a goldfish. Too late, far too late, she remembers that Sasoriko's problem isn't that she's stupid, or indeed unobservant. She always manages to notice things in the worst light, after all. The issue is that all this intelligence and observance is focussed through a rather strange lens.

Allowing her a moment to get her breath back, the dark-haired girl clinically ticks off a list of points on her fingers. "You stared right at him, even through Four-Eyes Aida was standing there _filming_ you with his dumb camera. You've gone crimson and tried to look as small as possible every time he's been in the same room as you since it happened. Even before, you used to sneak glances at him every so often! Why didn't I see this before? Argh!" She looks at Kiri respectfully. "I'm impressed, though. Every time I think I have you figured out, you reveal something you've been hiding from me." A crooked grin. "I can't wait to see what you come out with next."

Biting her lip, Kiri decides to steer for safer conversational waters. "Um... since I've done my laps for today, how about w-we go and have lunch under the t-trees?" Shrugging, Sasoriko follows her, mind whirring behind dark eyes. Her state of preoccupied distraction means that when Kiri abruptly stops, Sasoriko does not notice this in time to prevent herself from slamming into her friend's back. She stumbles back, wheezing out a curse. Hatchi's training regime is having profound effects, and the collision feels more like walking into a pillar. Scowling, she looks up to see what has Kiri so stunned speechless as to not bother warning her.

In the small grove of trees, a boy looks around nervously. No, he's not nervous, she realises. He's terrified. She vaguely recognises him - one of the idiot squad that hang around at the back of the classroom and play stupid games during lessons. He looks decidedly less relaxed now, as his eyes dart around, trying to pierce the thick foliage above him.

Sasoriko is just about to ask what on earth he is doing when her question is answered. A black, indistinct shape drops down and grabs the terrified boy, then vanishes upwards again in a silent and speedy ascent. Gaping, Sasoriko moves round from behind Kiri, noticing a few other classmates watching silently in various mixtures of awe, fear and confusion.

"Was that..."

"Rei," answers Kiri, flatly. "And I think she's dressed as Batman."

The terrified boy reappears, dropping headfirst and flailing towards the ground. Inches from it, he jerks to a halt and is hauled back up out of sight, shrieking all the way.

Kensuke winces as the boy's head visibly collides with a branch on the way back up. "That has _gotta_ hurt," he says. "Hope he was gritting his teeth, or he'll bite his tongue or something."

Kiri glances sideways and sees him. She flinches and scans round for something. Gaze lighting on Toji, her lips press together and her eyes narrow. Sasoriko can see the memory of The Incident flash through her mind almost as if it were displayed on a screen. With a shiver, Kiri turns back to look at the squealing boy Rei is interrogating.

"She's finding out who did it, isn't she?" she murmurs, too soft for anyone but Sasoriko to hear. Unsure whether the question was rhetorical or not, Sasoriko opts simply to nod. Something unreadable flashes across Kiri's face, that Sasoriko can't quite put a name to. Guilt? Satisfaction? Worry? Cool assessment?

It is impossible to tell, as the slightly pained look of remembered humiliation is back in place before she can get a proper read on it. Closing her eyes as the boy drops down again, Kiri turns on a heel and hurries off.

**22.**

The bell rings to signal the start of lunch, and Kiri gathers up her books lethargically. Her concentration has been off for most of the lesson, not because of the teacher's droning but due to her own internal deliberations. It was one thing saying at the time, still burning with mortified humiliation, to string up whoever was responsible from a branch. Seeing Rei's interrogation, though... it wasn't Rei's fault. She was just doing what Kiri had asked her to - a favour, a big favour. But the way she'd done it... Kiri feels distinctly uncomfortable about the whole affair. She's fairly sure she had acted like the person Sasoriko thought she was. To Kiri, that seems like an extremely bad sign.

She is so lost in her thoughts that she almost doesn't notice the figure waiting for her in the corridor, and squeaks slightly as she almost runs into him. Behind her and to her left, she hears Sasoriko let out a small groan. It is Shiro, and he's grinning widely at the two of them.

Sasoriko, for her part, has spent her day trying to work out what is going on in Kiri's head. The mousy-haired girl has been unusually quiet and reserved, even for her, while Rei has been searching for the perpetrator of The Incident. Shiro, now, is an annoyance she simply does not need.

So, have you two ever... heh, kissed?" Shiro asks, and the pale girl's knuckles tighten around the handle of her bag.

"I will _shove_ this down your _throat_," she snaps. That people like that idiot are allowed to survive is, in her opinion, evidence of something Wrong With The World, despite the claims of the NERV logo seen all over Tokyo-3.

"Heh. Sensitive. I _like_ it."

Kiri, in contrast, merely seems to shrink into herself a little and turns, brushing past Kiri on her way back down the corridor. Shooting a vicious parting glare at the moron, Sasoriko follows.

Talking, during lunch, is mostly one-sided. Despite attempts to get Kiri to reveal details, the girl remains stubbornly closed-mouthed. Eventually, Sasoriko gives up and suggests they head to the library to read, taking advantage of Kiri's silence to air her opinions en route.

"...the old fart, does he _ever_ do _anything_ other than stand there and drone on about..."

"... a rippling cascade, he goes on and on about," her voice is harsher. "'You have to feel it, you have to play with your _soul_, not your fingers.' Stupid stupid stupid pretentious finger-hurting Grade 3 pieces. Even worse than Grade 2."

"...retarded, imbecilic, slug-for-brains annoying little _idiot_," she is almost shouting now, clearly agitated, twisting the handles of her bag as if throttling them, "just doesn't know when to STOP! Every other day, it seems like, he tries some _stupid_ line as if we're FRIENDS! Friends! Me, with him, that little weasel! I have half a mind to string him up and- oof!" She glares at the gangly boy who has just collided with her, "Watch where you're going, damnit!"

Kensuke seems barely phased. "Sorry, I was in a hurry to see- haven't you heard?" He doesn't wait for a reply before grabbing both of them and tugging them towards the schoolyard. "Come on, come on, quick! You've gotta see this! It's Shiro!" The last statement sparks Sasoriko's curiosity, and she stops resisting, following the excitable geek around to a large crowd of students and teachers alike.

Squirming to the front of the crowd, the two girls look at the focus of all the collective attention. And stop, and stare.

Gently swinging like an oversized, lopsided pendulum, Shiro hangs upside-down from a tree branch. He is stripped to his underwear, hogtied, and as he gently pivots around, it becomes apparent that there is an apple lodged in his mouth. Someone has also taken the time to draw comical oversized eyebrows and an elaborately detailed bunny rabbit across his face in pink felt marker.

Kiri looks around, slightly distracted. There is a high pitched noise coming from somewhere. It takes several seconds for her to realise that Sasoriko is emitting it. The victorious grin on the pale girl's face is more than a little unsettling. Snatching the video camera from Kensuke's slack fingers, she darts around, zooming in on the suspended boy and getting as many angles as she can.

Kiri bites her lip, uncomfortable once more. Looking back on it, the fact that Shiro was the prankster does not surprise her overmuch, but this... this seems cruel. And unnecessary. And it's her fault, it's all her fault. Unable to stay at the spectacle, she leaves the gawking crowd behind, running round the building to the small clearing she used to wander through on occasion. It was in this clearing that she first met Rei, to the sound of mocking jeers and taunts. She can almost hear them now...

...wait. She _can_ hear them now. Different taunts, but the same mocking laughter, the same bullies. Naami, Kuzon, Shotou, Tarou. Older, now - it's been three and a half years - but still the same. Really, Kiri chides herself, it was silly to think that they would stop. They had been robbed of her as a target, true, and when they hadn't returned to bother her, she had assumed that they had stopped entirely.

Stupid. Of course they hadn't.

They simply found some new lives to make hell.

**23.**

She stares at the messy-haired boy they are punishing. He looks so small, so frail. A member of the year below her, if she's not mistaken. She vaguely recalls seeing him around before a bouncy, hyperactive boy like most his age are. He doesn't look bouncy or upbeat now, on all fours as the older, bigger, stronger bullies wave something just out of his reach - a schoolbook, perhaps?. Kiri flashes back to when it was her on the ground there, helpless and defeated. She'd been almost ready to give up, and then...

...and then her saviour had come. Rei, charging in to fight in her defence. So brave, so strong, so noble. Everything she wanted to be but couldn't. If... if she was anything like Rei, if she'd managed to get any closer to her dream...

She shuts her eyes, tearfully. She can't. Even with all the training she's gone through, even with all the progress she'd made, Kiri is too soft, too weak, too _cowardly_ to go out and help another person. Grinding her teeth, she lashes out at the wall in frustration. Rei would do it. Rei would go out there. Rei is brave and kind and a good person.

_So then..._ a voice whispers at the back of her mind, _pretend you_ **_are_**_ Rei, silly._

Her eyes widen at the concept. So simple. Easy. She takes a deep breath and sinks into the memories of her friend, wrapping herself in them. The confidence, the assurance, the courage and the unshakeable optimism. She interns herself in each layer, suppressing "Kiri" down until it will go no further, and filling the space it leaves with "Rei". For a moment, she almost hears a half-whisper on the wind, "Heee~ey..."

She dismisses it. Steps out. Takes one step toward the bullies, then another. And another. And another yet.

"Hey!" The voice seems to come from far away. Is it hers? It can't be hers, Kiri wouldn't shout like that, brazen and challenging. Yet the four bullies are looking at her, and there is no-one else around. Dreamlike, she watches from within as her body seems to move and speak on its own, stalking between the four seniors and the boy they were tormenting.

"Didn't you l-learn anything from Rei three years ago? Try to bully him again, and I'll... I'll c-call the t-teachers!" Deep inside, the small part of Kiri that is observing curls into a ball and cries at how ridiculous she sounds. The boys look incredulously at her, then turn to Naami, who is staring at her nonplussed.

"Are... are you actually _serious?_ You- gods, this is- look, Blobby, waddle off now and I'll forget this happened, okay? You can go eat out your creepy little goth friend and we don't have to get your tears and snot everywhere, everybody wins."

Wincing internally at the words, Kiri pulls the cloak of memory and attitude tighter around herself and stands resolute and silent, not trusting herself to say anything else without messing up again. Remembering the intimidating effect of Sasoriko's withering glare, she gives the best approximation of it that she can.

Rolling her eyes, Naami gives an put-upon sigh. "Fine, fine. If you've forgotten how pathetic you are, then... hell, why not? Guys, remind her." Grinning, the three boys move forward slowly, casually. Like cats playing with a frightened mouse, toying with it at their leisure. Shotou and Tarou fan out to either side, and Kuzon heads straight for her. She looks up at him and cannot suppress a slight quake to her knees - he's big, at least a head taller than her, and solidly built. Smugly, he pushes at her shoulder - a starting push, a preliminary push, clearly meant to be the first of many.

Kiri doesn't think. Over the past year of martial arts lessons, overseen by Hatchi and directed by Batou-sensei and Rei, her body has learnt that thinking means pain. Thinking means slowness. Thinking means finding herself flat on her back with the crown of her head splitting in sharp agony and her entire left side on fire. Her brain is useless in this situation, but her body knows what to do. Arms darting out to grab Kuzon's wrist and shirt in easy, relaxed grips, she swivels, centres and _heaves_...

Kuzon hits the ground. Hard. Shotou and Tarou stare. Kiri has time for a brief, exultant feeling of victory before Tarou is in her face, fist swinging round in a surprisingly well executed punch. Well executed, but slow as molasses compared to Rei or Batou-sensei. Kiri slides around it and delivers a series of hammering blows to his solar plexus. Her upper body strength is nothing special, she remembers Batou saying, but her speed and flexibility are impressive. One punch would barely have phased him, but half a dozen send him staggering back with a pained grunt. Too late, her senses warn her of the third threat - Shotou, behind her. She tries to slip away, but he's fast and wiry, and catches her in a bear hug from which she can't escape, no matter how much she squirms and struggles.

"Bitch!" spits Kuzon as he levers himself up and moves round in front of her. The boy they had been bullying is ignored, having crawled away to the sidelines from where he is watching wide eyed. For better or for worse, Kuzon is entirely focused on Kiri now. "Snivelling little cunt!" he barks, and backhands her. Kiri clenches her teeth and takes the blow silently, carefully relaxing her limbs and allowing Shotou to take more of her weight. If she can shift her centre of gravity as he next tries to hit her...

Shouldering Kuzon out of the way, Tarou smirks down at her and draws back for a punch at her gut. She tenses her stomach and breathes in - this is going to hurt, and there's no realistic way to dodge it, not now. She'll have to take it, then try to slump and hope Shotou alters his grip on her to compensate.

Tarou takes his time, savouring the moment and allowing Naami to approach, smirking nastily- or possibly he is still winded from her earlier barrage, Kiri isn't sure. Finally, after what seems like ages but is probably only a few seconds, he steps forward and-

...and collapses with a half-yell, half-shriek as his right leg buckles. Kiri catches a glimpse of Sasoriko backing off. A ballet kick, she surmises. But it's good that she's backing away. Sasoriko is not a direct fighter, and she knows it. In this situation, she'd only be in the way, and get hurt. Truth be told, Kiri isn't entirely sure that her own skills are up to the task either, but that's a moot point at this juncture. Most of her body weight is now being supported by Shotou, and Sasoriko's input gives an opportunity as good as any to act on.

In a single lightning movement, she stands. Caught off guard by the weight suddenly leaving his grip, Shotou stumbles forward slightly, straight into a vicious backward head butt. Kiri's skull explodes in pain, but she hears a satisfying crunch and a scream of pain, along with the arms around her suddenly letting go. Not giving him any time to get away, she immediately follows it up with a merciless backward elbow to the solar plexus, drawing out a hacked gurgle, and pirouettes to bring a fist round in a crescent sweep blow to the temple. Hacking, gasping for air and with blood streaming down his face, Shotou drops. A glance is all it takes for Kiri to tell that he will not be re-entering the fight.

Her senses give her more warning this time, and she manages two precise strikes with all the force she can muster as Kuzon tackles her. The impact knocks the wind out of her, and the collision with the ground, the whole weight of Kuzon on top of her, sends everything black for a second. Her head raps hard against the dirt, and a starburst of agony goes off behind her eyes just as fast, dragging her back to full alertness. Pinned under a heavier assailant... once again, her body takes over, squirming once to position herself right and then bring her knee up sharply between his legs. A high pitched scream signals success, and she rolls the suddenly-limp weight off her, chopping at his throat for good measure and leaving him hacking on the ground as she gets up. Her ribs throb with a dull, aching pain and her vision swims, but she stays focused on the two bullies left.

Naami is wide eyed and pale with rage, her normally pretty features twisted into a mask of rage. "You... you little... argh!" She shrieks, throwing herself at Kiri with mad abandon, nails clawing for Kiri's face as Tarou swings at her from the other side. A Tai Chi sweep knocks Naami's hands away casually and Kiri ducks, the punch passing harmlessly overhead and leaving Tarou tottering forward, unbalanced. Sweeping his feet from under him, she doesn't quite manage to dodge Naami's furious kick and is sent sprawling, a sharp pain alerting her to a probably twisted ankle. Listening to the furious vitriol the older girl is spewing, a red haze descends over Kiri's vision and she recalls every word, every taunt, every cruel barb that Naami has thrown at her over the years. The bully never gets her hands dirty, never steps into the fight herself. Always staying on the sidelines, mocking and jeering and directing the boys, she's the leader, the mastermind, the motivator of three dumb thugs.

Everything suddenly seems very simple.

"Will you just shut _up_?" screams Kiri, and tackles the other girl, who is caught completely off guard by the sudden surge. All pretence of skill or technique is gone as Kiri simply pummels every part of the girl she can reach, contemptuously swatting aside the feeble attempts to scratch or claw her in return.

On the sidelines, Sasoriko watches with awe and more than a small hint of fear. She knows, objectively, that the mousy, quiet, shy girl hides a ruthless intellect behind the meek facade. She is fully aware that Kiri has been keeping a frankly _ridiculous_ training schedule for almost three and a half years now. And she hasn't missed the deadly level of retribution that Kiri is willing to inflict on those who rouse her ire. But still... to know a fact is one thing, but to _see_ the mousy, quiet, shy girl who still flinches whenever Toji walks into the room and who tends to cower whenever people in class start shouting...

...to see that quiet, meek little dormouse proceed to utterly demolish three large, athletic boys who are each two years older than her and then beat the snot out of a senior girl who practically rules the school bully tree...

... it's like owning a pet, playing with it, petting it, feeding it scraps with bare hands, and then watching it turn around and rip the throat out of a predator four times its size. A soft sound from behind her draws her attention, and she turns to find Rei grinning widely. "Heee~ey", the albino girl sing-songs, and a shiver runs up Sasoriko's spine, "it's cool that Kiri's standin' up for herself, but we should really step in now." She strides forward, obviously expecting Sasoriko to follow, and unable to think of any alternative, the pale girl does so.

"Heee~ey, Kiri? You really gotta stop that now, 'fore you cause any nasty damage or stuff," Rei observes. When this appears to have no impact, she reaches down and effortlessly hauls the mousy girl off Naami. With Rei steadying her, Kiri seems to settle slightly, and a tinge of sanity returns to her gaze. Nonetheless, her expression as she looks down on the beaten mess in front of her is frightening. She takes several deep breathes, calming herself down, and speaks.

"You... didn't stop. Even after Rei beat you the first time, you just found someone else. So... no more. Not again. Understand?" Naami stares at her dazedly, confused. Kiri glares. "I don't want you in this school, Naami. You're a- you're horrible, and mean, and spiteful. So... go. Complain to your parents that you don't like it here, flunk your tests, beg to be transferred out... I don't care how, but leave. Just... get out of here. I never want to see your face again. Understand?" Naami stays staring, frightened now, and Kiri snaps out, "_Understand?_"

Dazed, confused, scared and in pain, Naami nods frantically in terror. Kiri lets out a slow sigh of satisfaction. "G-good. Now... go away. Take them with you," she gestures to the beaten, shuffling boys who are beginning to pick themselves up, "and p- leave us al-lone."

Mutely, Naami retreats, followed by the hobbling boys. Kiri turns with a sniff and walks as steadily as she can in the opposite direction, trailed by Sasoriko and Rei. As she rounds the corner, she murmurs quietly to Sasoriko, "Can anyone s-see us?" Sasoriko glances round, finding only Rei standing cheerfully with her hands laced behind her back and a wide grin on her face. "Um... no?"

"Good."

As if responding to a switch inside her being thrown, Kiri slumps, almost collapsing and barely being supported by Sasoriko hastily grabbing her. Her breathing is harsh, and a lot more pain is suddenly showing on her face than was mere moments previously. Of course, Sasoriko realises, she would want to make sure nobody was around before showing any weakness.

"I think..." mumbles Kiri, "...concussion... bad grazes 'long my back'n'legs... brusied ribs... twist'd 'nkle... n', um..." she blinks up at Sasoriko blearily, "...broke a nail, too."

The last is so unexpected, so out of place coming from Kiri, that Sasoriko lets a snort of laughter escape and almost drops the girl. "Come on," she says, "Rei and I will get you to the nurse, okay?" Supporting Kiri, with Rei propping the girl up on the other side, she begins to make for the nearest way back inside. A movement catches the corner of her eye, and she half-turns to see the boy Kiri had stepped in to defend, following them like a puppy. His eyes are wide with worshipful awe, and fixated on Kiri. He hesitates as they stop, but approaches slowly and reverently, not making a sound. Sasoriko rolls her eyes.

"Go away, brat. Stare at something else, she doesn't need you creeping her out." It does not appear to significantly phase him, as he continues to nervously edge closer. Sasoriko is put in mind of a zealot approaching the alter of his god, and sighs in exasperation. "Rei, can you get him to go away?"

Silently, the blunette detaches herself, leaving Sasoriko supporting most of Kiri's weight, and moves to head off the boy. "Sorry kiddo, but Kiri's not in any shape to talk right now. Come back some other time, kay?" The boy hesitates, but tries to pass her, only for Rei to sidestep, blocking his path again. Leaving the standoff behind, Sasoriko adjusts the weight of Kiri's arm over her shoulders, and sets off with her friend toward the nurse.

"Uhn… 'ko? Th's… two 'f you… wh'r'd- th'other 'ne c'm from?"

Sasoriko rolls her eyes and keeps going.

**24.**

Everything inside the head of Kirima Harasami is woozy. Yes. Woozy. It's a nice word. Woo~ooozy. Wooozy woozy woozy woozy. It sort of feels like how her head is throbbing and she feels sick and when she tried to sit up, everything went all black and her eyeballs stopped working.

The ache in her knuckles, though... well, she's heard Sasoriko use the word "cathartic" before, and although she was not quite sure what it meant then, now she's pretty sure that the feeling there is a cathartic feeling.

In her dress pocket, her phone vibrates. On the third go, she manages to get it out, but her vision is so blurred that she can't read the screen, and she's not even sure if she accidentally rejected the call or not. She tries to hold it to her ear anyway, but it slips from tired, aching fingers and a clatter announces its escape down between the bed and the bedside cabinet.

Marshalling her thoughts, she attempts to focus through the blurriness. Sasoriko… both of Sasoriko had left for class, leaving in perfect step with each other. Kiri still isn't sure where the other one came from, but suspects she might be… thing. Where your head has been hurt, and things are all… strange. Big word. Con-something.

The alternative, that Sasoriko has acquired an identical twin, is too terrifying even to contemplate.

Vaguely, she hears the door open, and looks up, "Hello?"

"Wow," says a voice that seems slightly familiar. After a moment's thought, Kiri places it - the new girl in class, from earlier in the week. "You look _dreadful_," she comments, footsteps sounding as she walks over to Kiri's bed. "What happened, did you get into a fight with a couple of seniors?"

"Yes," answers Kiri truthfully. There is a long pause.

"Um... that was a joke. Right?"

Kiri blinks groggily, unsure of what the girl means. "Um... joke?"

Silence reigns again. Eventually, the girl decides on a safer topic of conversation. "So... yeah. I'm Emi. Emi Akaho. And you're Kiri, right?" Kiri smiles slightly, and nods. This proves to be a mistake, as it causes the world to tilt and swing nauseatingly, and she clings to the pillow until it stops rotating.

"Heh, yeah... sorry, I didn't actually remember it. It's written on the clipboard thing at the end of your bed." She pauses, then continues, curiosity getting the better of her, "Seriously, was it seniors who did that? I mean, I'm just in 'cause I gashed my hand on some scissors, but... you should tell the teachers who did it. I mean it, they shouldn't let this sort of thing go!"

A tiny flicker of something drives Kiri's next words. Normally meek and entirely willing to fade into the background, it is perhaps Hatchi's influence that makes her want her accomplishment known, along with a need to calm the girl's anger on her behalf. Regardless of the reasons, the next words out of her mouth freeze the transfer student mid-rant, leaving her gaping open-mouthed.

"Th-there were four of them. Bullies. I started it. _I won_."

Which is when her mother, still in her NERV uniform, bursts through the door like an angry wildcat. "_Kirima Harasami!_" she begins, and then catches sight of her daughter, lying prone in the bed with bandages around her ribs and hands.

"... ... ..." she gapes, before pulling herself together, "Oh... my... baby- what has happened to you?"

"She's been... well, either fighting with, or attacked by people in the playground," the nurse says, flinching slightly when Hyouka focusses on him. She hisses at him in tones of cold fury, "_Who did this?_"

"W-we're not - well, there are several injured children in the year above, but we can't be sure they were the ones involved. And also they seem to have left school grounds, for some reason. There does seem to be quite a lot of low level celebrating amongst the students, but everyone denies seeing what happened, including the older students who were involved - or at least the two we managed to find and question before they slipped out. Apparently, they were fighting among themselves. Or fell over. Repeatedly. It seems to be a bit unclear."

"B'llies," mumbles Kiri, "us'd to- Rei- Whi' Knight..."

Hyouka glances at her daughter, worry battling outrage and panic, "What did she just say?" she snaps.

"I have no idea," he replies curtly, " And in any case, she's incoherent and has a _concussion_, so you should all gAH!" He jerks backwards in surprise at the sight of the blue-haired, red-eyed girl standing next to the window. The second storey window.

Hyouka takes a wary step towards the girl. "Are you... Rei?" she asks tentatively, "...or... Hatchi? Or one of the others?"

The girl's serious expression briefly turns into a smile as she takes in the NERV uniform and the concern on Hyouka's face. "Yup!" she chirps, before returning to a serious frown.

"Uh, I think-" starts the nurse, and is nailed by two stares, one brown, one crimson, that are nonetheless remarkably similar in their promise of _pain_ in the near future. He wilts like a flower under a rocket exhaust, "-that... I... should see to the young lady over here, if you don't mind terribly. And, um... could you please... uh... not be too loud? Miss Harasami needs her rest." He escapes the piercing scowls to tend to Emi.

"Soooo~" says the blue haired girl, not taking her eyes off Hyouka. The air between them seems to crackle with tension, and Kiri can almost see the friction sparking between them. Though that could just be the concussion, "I just have one question, Kiri." She narrows her eyes ominously, and the tension in the air builds to oppressive levels, "...did you win?"

"Yeah, she said so!" calls Emi from across the room. All eyes turn on her, "Apparently there were, like, half a dozen seniors, and she beat the crap out of them all!"

All eyes turn back to Kiri, Hatchi's gaze proud, excited and congratulatory while her mother's is furious. The mousy-haired girl squeaks, transfixed by both stares like a rabbit before the headlights of a lorry, and takes the only sensible option left to her.

"Aww," she hears a female voice complain as the world turns dark, "how are we supposed to get all the juicy details if she's fainted?"


	4. Chapter 4

**25.**

Two weeks without training. Two weeks in bed. Two weeks being alternately fussed over and scolded by her mama. It seems strange to be out in the fresh air again after so much time indoors with nothing to do. Well, nothing but homework, ferried to her by Sasoriko and Rei.

A stab of pain from her still-tender ribs interrupts Kiri's upbeat tread along the path. The doctors say that she won't be completely healed for another week or so, and that she should take it easy until then. Kiri isn't sure how Hatchi will take this news, but is fairly certain that it's not going to make for an easy discussion. And she's fairly sure she's still grounded. And she could well be in trouble at school for fighting. And Sasoriko will probably have formed a new _theory_ about her - she blushes as she remembers - about her sort-of-berserk episode after she jumped on Naami. And- and- and-

Kiri shakes her head. Those are problems, yes. But importantly, they're problems that _aren't happening now_. Nearly four years of knowing Rei and Hatchi both has taught her well the value of living in the moment and not worrying about things she can't change.

Rounding the penultimate corner on the way to school, she almost runs into Sasoriko who is standing in the middle of the pavement. The short, pale girl is frowning, and starts upon seeing her. "Finally! You took your time showing up! Don't say anything, follow me." She grabs Kiri's hand and drags her back around the corner.

"Okay. First, one question. Very simple. Do you want to stay low key?"

Kiri blinks at her. "Um..."

"The whole... furore... thing, about your fight, had _almost_ died down, and then they got word you were coming back. So now there's a giant mob of students waiting in the yard to mob you and... I don't know, I think they just want to find out if the rumours are true, or something. Point is, you walk in there as normal, and you'll be in the centre of a frantic crowd within seconds." Sasoriko starts pacing back and forth, agitated, "I saw this coming, obviously, so I put some thought into how to get around it... as long as you keep your head low it should die down again within a few days. And they can't try anything in class, because the teacher will be there. And also Horaki, she seems to be willing to cover you. Therefore, the only problem is getting you in past the horde." She turns around with a smirk just in time to see a blue-topped shape swing down from the top of the high wall separating the pavement from the school, grab Kiri and swing her up and over the side.

Sasoriko stares at the spot where the two figures disappeared over the wall. "... right," she says eventually. "Of course. She'd already worked out a way round it. So much for my plan." An exasperated sigh emerges, "Sometimes, I really don't know why I bother." Expression put out, she turns on her heel and stalks back around towards the entrance.

Across the wall, a hushed conversation is going on next to the wall behind the school building. Rei paces in front of Kiri as she talks, much as Sasoriko was pacing a mere minute ago.

"Listen, Kiri, I know it was a big sorta defeat your demons fight an' stuff, but next time you gotta gotta _gotta_ let me handle this sorta thing. I'm good at it, an' you could get hurt." She glances at Kiri's chest and knuckles, both still bandaged, and frowns. "Hurt more, I mean. You were really brave an' all, but... some fights you can't win, yeah?" Kiri notices a certain subtle emphasis on 'you', but forebears to mention it.

"So yeah. I don't want my friends getting hurt. An' you're my friend, so you gotta promise no doin' stuff like this again. Not even if Hatchi says you should." Rei considers this for a second, "_Especially_ if Hatchi says you should," she amends. "Though she's grounded by Little Mommy at the moment 'cause of breaking out to see you. Which was all bad. An' stuff. Basically, I mean... um... howta say? Ah! Yep. You gotta face your demons and stuff, but face your demons like... one at a time, and not if they're _waa~aaaay_ bigger than you are."

"I-I understand, Rei. I'm sorry." Kiri genuinely is. She hadn't realised she had worried Rei this much. The thought of Rei concerned over her... she feels touched. And contrite, and a bit guilty, and also slightly thrilled that Rei cares so much. Though she feels a little ashamed of that. She shouldn't be feeling good that Rei was worried, and her stomach twists in shame that she is anyway.

"An'... an'..." Rei is clearly getting carried away with the metaphor, not having noticed Kiri speak, "... like, four demons are big and nasty and they... like... have claws, so fightin' them with your bare hands just gets you hurt 'cause your hands are all squishy and not like bear hands at all an'..." Rei blinks. "So yeah," she concludes, stopping in front of Kiri, "promise me you're not gonna do stuff like that again, kay?"

Kiri nods fervently and Rei nods, apparently mollified. "Oh," she adds idly, "other thing, yeah. You got a fanboy," She nods to something behind Kiri, who turns to look. And stifles a shriek at the boy standing directly behind her. He is short, his black hair cropped close to his head. He is also looking at Kiri with an expression of awed reverence. A moment's thought places him - hazily - as the boy who was being bullied just before she'd stepped into the fight.

"Onee-sama! You were _so cool!_ They were all bullying me and you came in and saved me! Thank you thank you thank you!" He dips into a brief bow, looking up at her excitedly. Kiri backs away a step uncomfortably, flustered by the effusive praise.

"Um... Rei? Rei, help!"

The girl in question tilts her head in thought, "Hmm... remember, Kiri, you gotta treat your first fanboy well. Make sure they... um... feed themselves, I guess." Kiri gapes at her, and the boy takes advantage of her distraction to latch onto her hand.

"I told all my friends about how awesome you were! And some of them didn't believe me, but I told them that you could beat them all up if they didn't, and they stopped!"

"Alsoalso, make sure he gets all of his shots! An' also a collar. With a tag on it. Or was that pets? I can't remember..."

Kiri looks wildly between the two, finding help in neither. Flustered further, she tries to shake the boy off from his limpet-like grip on her arm, to no avail.

"Who- who _are_ you, anyway?" she asks, attempting to pry him off by force. To no avail, however, as he clings on despite her best efforts. He grins happily up at her, somehow managing to remain attached despite her best efforts. "P-please let go! And... and I d-didn't.. I d-don't want to b-beat p-p-people up! Rei!" Turning frantically for help, she discovers that the blue-haired girl has vanished.

The smile morphs into a frown, "Aww, onee-sama! Don't be like that! You were really awesome and I wanna be just like you! You can't go back on that and act all shy!" He tilts his head thoughtfully as Kiri attempts to use it as leverage to pry him off. "Oh, yeah! I'm Kuro! Kuro Kanjera!" He pauses again, seemingly mulling something over, "... will you be my girlfriend?"

"No! G-get _off_ me!" Kiri half-shouts as she distantly hears the bell for class go. "I'm g-going to be late for class! Get off! Now!" Finally, reluctantly, the boy disengages his grip and backs off, demeanour seemingly untouched by her palpable annoyance. "Awesome!" he grins cheerfully, "That's the onee-sama I like! Hey, I'll take you out on a date on Thursday!" He runs off to class, leaving a staring Kiri.

"... eh?" she manages after a minute. The sound of the bell ringing again snaps her out of her reverie and reminds her of her position.

"Ahh! I'm going to be late!"

Despite her best efforts, Kiri stumbles into the classroom to be met by Hikari, standing with folded arms and a tapping foot. The girl's back is to the teacher, and she appears to know it, because her expression is half disapproval for being late and half congratulations. It does not take very much thought to figure out what for, and Kiri flushes uncomfortably.

"Um... I... sorry? I g-got... held up. Rei... and then... um..." Kiri suddenly realises how much her ribs _hurt_ after that frantic run upstairs, and gingerly holds a hand to the spot where it aches the most. Hikari's disapproval softens at the sight, and she nods, "Fine then. I'll let you off this time. Don't be late again."

Nodding a quick bow and wincing at the resultant stab from her chest, Kiri hurries over to her desk and sits.

Hopefully, she can get through the rest of today without any more trouble.

* * *

**26.**

A partial block flows into a redirection, and Kiri finishes, standing in the middle of the large room with her eyes half closed and her chest heaving. Breathlessly, she wipes the sweat from her brow and looks at the huge man opposite her, the only other person in the room.

"Hmm. Again." As usual, Batou is almost monosyllabic. Kiri breathes in deeply and nods, sinking into the slightly-modified horse stance that is the beginning of the form. She nods again to show that she is ready, and closes her eyes, waiting.

"Begin," Batou's deep voice rumbles, and Kiri half opens her eyes in an expression that might look almost lazy to a casual observer. Relaxing, she mentally takes a step backwards and allows her body to move, keeping a steady mental hand on the brakes. Dreamily, she watches herself move - fast, flowing and precise, just as she's been taught to. It's one of the complex forms, with elements of hapkido and eskrima fused to a tricky aikido form. Part of her mind hyper-focuses on the movements, straining her body to get the complicated timings and positions down perfectly. The rest of her drifts absently, and familiarity takes her back almost two years, into the depths of a memory.

* * *

"Heeee~y"

Kiri turns warily. Hatchi smiles at her cheerily from the windowsill and graces her with a little wave as she swings herself inside the room.

"Kay, I'd normally talk to you over the phone, but this is important, so I came to see you," she says, pulling Kiri over to the bed and sitting her down. Satisfied with her audience, she turns and paces restlessly in front of the girl as she speaks.

"We live in dangerous times, Kiri. Well, sort of dangerous. In some parts of the world. Which aren't here. But they could come here at any time! Also, it's gonna get much more dangerous soon but oops I sorta wasn't meant to say that bit so can you please forget that bit please. An'... an' it's our duty to be prepared for those things, and stand up to fight them when they threaten our stuff. An' also the people who are important to us, like our families and friends an' _**babies**_." She pauses, taking stock of where she is. "An'... um... seriously, there... um... _might_ be bad stuff ahead and... um." Hatchi looks unusually awkward. "You gotta know how to look after yourself, right," she settles for, thumping a fist into her palm.

Kiri raises a slightly confused hand to question what the point of this speech is, but is overridden by Hatchi as she continues.

"So, with that stuff in mind, I've determined after much thought an'... um... thingy, with maps and war rooms an' stuff. Strategising, that's it. After much thought an' strategising, I've determined that you, Kiri, are not ready as you are to face these dangers. Which might kinda be happening soonish. So while ballet is totally awesome an' the best thing ever, even if _some_ people say it's all stupid and pointless and a 'waste of effort mastering an antiqued series of gyrations with no constructive pay off'," Hatchi's voice shifts up into a mocking falsetto briefly as she recites the quote, "and some people even _leave_ in the middle of a recital to go back to their stupid plants in their stupid gardens which are stupid and way more boring than ballet and... um..." Hatchi blinks and trails off, "... what was I saying again?"

"Um... something about... d-danger... and ballet b-being awesome?" Kiri offers hesitantly.

"Right, yeah! So even though ballet is _totally_ the most awesome thing ever, it's not reee~ally enough for... stuff. So basically, starting soonish, you're gonna be cutting back on ballet an' starting learning martial arts!" Hatchi waves her hands enthusiastically, making sweeping, extravagant gestures to illustrate her point, "You'll be refined and honed in the forge of refinery and hone... hone...honage, into an unstoppable engine of- of... um..."

Hatchi looks Kiri up and down critically, pursing her lips.

"... well, you'll be way better than you are now, anyway."

The mousy ten year old feels she should probably be offended at this, but Hatchi seems to be finally getting to the point. She leans forward and tries to look interested. Instead of, say, confused, which is currently a rather better description of her feelings.

"So, I've cut back your ballet lessons an' arranged a schedule for learning your new style. I've sorta been working on it as a side project since you became my sidekick, 'cause I knew you'd need to be good at fighting an' stuff, an' since you're _my_ sidekick, you need the best." Hatchi's voice shifts in tone and a proud smile spins across her face as she continues excitedly, "So I got a lotta different styles, an' also ballet, and some other types of dancing, and then some more stuff like parkour an' sports, an' I looked at your current an' projected physical capabilities made them all into a style that fits you!" She pirouettes happily and turns it seamlessly into a bow, arms spread wide, obviously expecting applause. For once, Kiri is strongly tempted to give it. Designing a whole martial arts style... she doesn't know much about that sort of thing, but... shouldn't that take years? Or even decades?

... certainly not _sixteen months_, surely?

And yet Hatchi stands in front of her, supremely confident and obviously waiting for a response. Kiri settles for giving an awed sound, which she doesn't really need to fake at all. If Hatchi is telling the truth - and Kiri can't remember her lying, in the year they've known each other - well, not apart from things like "you can rest once you've done ten more press-ups!", then it is an astonishing feat.

Hatchi pulls up from the low bow, grinning broadly, and bounces forward to sit next to Kiri. "It's not quite finished yet," she cautions, "'cause doin' all the evolutionary algorithms an' then doin' stress testing an' stuff takes ages, an'... an' you're not double-jointed or strong or hyper-agile at _all_, so I gotta tone the stuff down loads, an' I have to do it myself 'cause the others aren't any help, even Siyon, 'cause she suggests stuff that totally wouldn't suit you or anything. But that's okay, 'cause your muscle memory is reee~ally slow an' you can't memorise the forms first time, so I'll still be able to develop it faster than you can learn it. I got you a teacher for it, too. He'll instruct you on it three days a week until you have a handle on it, an' then one day a week to make sure you're keeping on track an' to correct anywhere you're going wrong. Kay?"

Kiri blinks, considering. "So... um..." she swallows, "you're... I'm g-going t-to learn how t-to fight?"

"Yup!" says Hatchi cheerfully, and the thought 'Why couldn't you just say that instead of a long speech?' runs through Kiri's head. She doesn't say it out loud, however. Gut instinct and over a year of knowing Hatchi tell her very firmly that to do so would be a _very unwise_ choice.

"Oh, an' another thing!" Hatchi says, as if just remembering, "It's only pseudo-optimal. Like... it's the best way you can fight, but some other people will still be able to fight better. Like me. 'Cause I'm just... stronger, an' faster, an'... yeah. I didn't do _my_ best with it, 'cause... well, my best is better. But I did _your_ best."

* * *

"Stop."

Kiri snaps out of the flashback abruptly, her body instinctively righting itself from the hapkido throw follow through. Finding Batou outside her field of view, she began to turn, but a sharp tap to the crown of her head from a thick forefinger stops her. This close, she can almost _feel_ the bass rumble of the enormous man's voice as a physical vibration in her chest. It's hard to imagine him behind the counter of a bakery, serving up pastries.

"You overextend on your kicks," he observes, "and your recovery time from follow through hasn't improved. Work on those." She nods silently, itching to turn around. It's eerie, how someone so large can be so quiet, and she always finds it disconcerting when she can't see where he is.

"Mostly, though," he rumbles, "low stance. Assume."

Kiri obeys, sinking into the stance, knees bent and palms flat and ready to strike. Batou taps her left shoulder, "Lower it a little, you're leaving an opening" and her hip, "shift inwards. You're unbalanced as you are." He demonstrates by pushing gently forwards and to the side, the light force still almost enough to knock her over from the unbalanced position. "And knees. Bend further, you need your centre of gravity low." Her knees are exhausted, but she dutifully does as she is told, and the increase in stability is notable. Batou circles round to her front, watching carefully.

"Hmm. Relax your muscles. You need to be able to flow out of the way of an attack." He steps forward with a punch, easily telegraphed and not too fast for her to dodge. Suppressing the instinct to bite her lip, Kiri steps to the right, circling round it in a smooth, flowing motion.

A smooth, flowing motion that runs into a foot somehow placed directly in her path. Kiri goes sprawling, arms curving as she falls to the mats propelling her into a forward roll over her shoulder and turning quickly to face her instructor as soon as she rises.

"You dodge to the right," he notes, "Always. Bad habit, eliminate it." He steps forward again, and Kiri circles away. To the left. He nods approvingly, following her slowly as she circles and occasionally launching an attack to test her defence. After another ten minutes, he glances at the clock and holds up a hand.

"Enough. Your mother will be here soon to pick you up. Work on your low stance and recovery time, and remember not to overextend. Our next lesson is... next Thursday, yes?"

"Yes, Batou-sensei," she confirms - her first words in almost two hours, since her recap of the past week's training before starting. The session has been exhausting, but highly productive, and her muscles glow with the warm ache of exertion from both the training and the hour of ballet before it.

It is telling, she thinks as she walks out to her mother, that this feeling is so _familiar_ by now.

* * *

**27.**

"So, did you have a good session?" Hyouka smiles at Kiri, the tantalising scent of seafood curry permeating the small kitchen. Kiri nods tiredly, idly stirring the food around on her plate with her chopsticks.

Kiri looks up as she feels her mother's warm hand on hers. "Is something the matter?" her mother asks; a look of mild concern in her eyes. "You're normally at least able to wolf down food after a training session, but you're as limp as a noodle at the moment." She smiles reassuringly, "Why don't you have a nice long soak in the furo after supper, hmm?"

"Mmm. That would be nice." Kiri hesitates, before plunging ahead regardless. "Mama... did you ever... I... since the fight... everyone's all... um... and _looking_ at me... and- and... and I don't know what to do!" She shakes her head violently in frustration.

Years of experience with crises both minor and major of every variety in both her travels and her job have made Hyouka Harasami extremely good at thinking on her feet. Abandoning her meal, she moves round the table to fold her daughter into a hug. "Hey there," she whispers reassuringly, "it's okay, it's okay. Shhh... it's okay, sweetheart. Tell me what's wrong. Slowly."

"Well, um... since- since the f-fight, it's... I went b-back to school t-today and Sasoriko said- and Rei- I... and it's all so... so c-confusing, and... and... and I don't know what to DO!" Tears of frustration run down Kiri's cheeks as she kicks at one of the table legs to vent her helpless anger. She allows herself to be pulled further into her mother's embrace, the older woman murmuring to her until she calms down.

"Okay," begins Hyouka tentatively, "So you're confused about school, and... Rei?" A pang of worry ricochets through her gut. She has had the mandatory briefings on the Ree, she knows what they can do. Whilst Rei and Hatchi certainly seem like nice girls, there is still a lingering worry she can never quite shake about how closely they interact with her daughter. "Has she- no, never mind. Um... you know, sweetheart, you're twelve now, and you might start feeling some things that you're unaccustomed to, but it's perfectly natural, I promise. They're nothing to be scared of, and I'll love you no matter who you-"

"Mama! No! NonononoNO! I told you before and I'm still telling you now, _I don't have a crush on Rei!_" Hyouka waves her hands hurriedly as Kiri rounds on her, cheeks still wet with tears, and glares. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry, sweetie, it just sounded like- alright, what _is_ the matter then?"

Kiri sniffs, "It's just... all the p-people at school... they're b-being _stupid_ and... and... half of them think that what I d-did was _g-good_, even the... the beating up Naami when it was over already, and... and this little- the b-boy I saved, he's... almost... almost worshipping me, and he keeps saying all these things like- like I'm something I'm _not_ and he was there this morning a-and at lunch and he... and the rest of them..." she looks up at Hyouka, blue eyes wide and pleading, "... they just won't leave me _alone_," she finishes plaintively. "That's all I want, to b-be left alone. Why d-do they have to be so... so..."

Impulsively, Hyouka hugs her tighter, kissing the top of her head and holding her close. "Oh, sweetie..." she soothes her trembling daughter, "my poor girl. Don't worry, it'll be okay. This is just a phase, they're excited because you did something big and brave and shocking. It will, I'm afraid, be the talk of the school for a while but after that, it will blow over. A month from now, people will barely even remember it, I promise."

Kiri nods miserably into her chest. "I want it to be over now, though," she mumbles into Hyouka's jumper, her words muffled by the fabric. Hyouka's lips twitch slightly at her adorable display, and leans down to - not without a grunt of effort - pick her daughter up.

"Alright," she says, "you're stressed and upset. Have a bath, and everything will feel _much_ better. Things always seem brighter after a long, hot soak." Carrying Kiri upstairs to the bathroom, she sets her down in the small, white-tiled room and hesitates.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asks. She has things to do, yes, but her daughter is more important.

Kiri shakes her head. "I can manage by myself," she says. Her voice is quiet, but carries a hint of the indignation that crops up in most children Hyouka has seen, earnestly telling their parents that they don't need any help, and that they're perfectly fine on their own.

She smiles tolerantly at her daughter. "Alright," she acquiesces. "If you need me, I'll be downstairs working on our finances. Your father was a little late on the payment this month, so we may have to be a little stingy for the next week or so." Kiri nods in weary understanding, face darkening for a moment, before throwing a significant look in her mother's direction. Chuckling, Hyouka takes that as her cue to leave, and allow Kiri to bathe on her own.

* * *

Forty minutes later, Kiri slides the bathroom door open with a blissful sigh, a billow of steam and warm air embracing her. Her mama was right, she _does_ feel an awful lot better now. Yawning widely, she tugs the large, warm, fluffy towel wrapped round her a little tighter and checks that the smaller one her hair is wrapped in isn't coming loose. Satisfied, she rubs blearily at her eyes and makes her way towards her bedroom, nudging the door open with a foot as her hands are occupied holding the towel around herself.

"Mmm..." Warmth embraces her as she steps into the small room - her mama must have turned the heating on at some point. Her eyes flutter half-closed in bliss as she toes the door shut again, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror as she discards the towel and makes her way over to the bed-

Wait. Hang on. Something in the reflection...

..._blue_ hair?

"Huh. We _gotta_ work on your situation awareness some."

"Aaaaahhhhhh!" Kiri's panicked shriek brings Hyouka upstairs at a dead run, hastened by a heavy thump and a crash. Knocking open the door, she confronts...

...her daughter, naked save for a towel wrapping her wet hair, lying on the floor behind her bed, next to an overturned bedside cabinet. And in the wall, where yesterday there had been a full-length mirror, an LCD screen now showed a blue-haired, red-eyed girl against the background of a traditional dojo, watching curiously. Even in the midst of her confusion, Hyouka is forced to admire the quality - it's as if the girl is merely on the other side of pane of glass, close enough to reach out and touch. Hyouka considers the situation in front of her. If Kiri was four years older... but no, this is probably an accident.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" she asks, a note of concern in her voice, "That sounded painful."

"I just fell over!" Kiri blurts out, grabbing for a towel, with a desperate, begging glance away from her mother to Hatchi. "What are you d-doing in my room!"

Hatchi shrugs. Hyouka takes some comfort from the fact that the... the Ayanami seems to be just taking it in stride, and seems to be looking at her daughter's face, rather than elsewhere. "Are you asking me or her?" she asks. Her voice is clear, with no distortion or loss in quality. It genuinely sounds as if she's in the room with them. "Cause I'm not exactly _in_ your room. Well, depending on what you mean by 'in', anyway."

Flustered, Kiri scrambles onto the bed and under the covers."Just... gah, how- what _is_ that, anyway?"

"Oh, you like it?" Hatchi chirps, "Yeah, basically, I'm not allowed out much, right? An' it's reeee~eaally boring where I am, so I got Kei to help design this, an' then got it installed in your room! It's a Virtual Window, it means that we can talk whenever we want, an' play, an' watch movies together, an'... uh..." a flicker of uncertainty shadows her face, "... do friend stuff, I guess. Um. I've never had a friend before, so I don't really know about it." She perks up, "So this'll let me find out! Great, huh?"

"Well I don't know about Kiri, but I'm certainly impressed." Both girls jump a little as Hyouka speaks up, having almost forgotten she was there. "However, if I might ask one thing... Hatchi, is it? In future, I would appreciate it if you _asked_ before installing things like this in my daughter's bedroom." She hesitates, considering whether or not to ask exactly _how_ it had been installed without her knowledge, and decides against it. She might get an answer. "I'll leave you two to talk, then," she settles for, and retreats back downstairs.

An uncomfortable silence descends. Hatchi seems entirely unaffected, sitting down cross legged on the floor and grinning widely, but Kiri shifts awkwardly.

"Um... you c-can see me, right?" she asks. Hatchi nods in affirmation. "Uh huh! I'm lookin' at basically the same thing you are. Like a window, see? It's got cameras, microphones, speakers an' the main display, so it works just like a hole in the wall we're talking through. 'Cept you can't step through it, course." Kiri nods uncertainly, "Then... um... c-could you t-turn it off for a minute while I get d-dressed?"

Hatchi pouts, but complies, and the window shifts into what appears to be a normal mirror. Eying it suspiciously, suddenly uncertain as whether Hatchi is still watching her, Kiri pulls the covers off the bed and keeps them around herself as she locates her pyjamas and dresses. Tossing the covers back onto the mattress, she sits cross-legged on a cushion in front of the mirror and waits for Hatchi to reopen the channel.

The speed with which she does so does nothing to reduce Kiri's suspicion that the only thing terminated was her end of the display. She lets it slide, though, not seeing an awful lot she can do about it.

"So... um... why this, now?" she ventures. Hatchi quirks an eyebrow, puzzled, and Kiri expands, "We've known each other for almost four years. Why this, and why now?"

Hatchi considers this. "Um... dunno, really. I guess... you've been my sidekick for ages, yeah, but that fight you had made me realise you were a really _good_ sidekick. An'... an' you have been putting a lot of effort into training an' stuff, even though you're just... just normal. An'... well, Rei's been talkin' to a new friend overseas, an' it... it sorta made me think that I don't really have any friends." She looks down morosely, fiddling with a barbell lying at her feet. "An' I want some. Friends, that is. An'... um... you're the only person I really know. So... uh..." she looks up, slightly nervous but trying to cover it with bravado, "Little Mommy says that you can't _make_ someone be friends with you, you gotta ask them. So... um... will you be my friend? Please?"

Kiri's heart melts. With all the madness and energy Hatchi and Rei possess, it's sometimes hard to remember that they're children like her. In Hatchi's case especially, it's all too easy to forget what it must be like to be cooped up and barely ever allowed to go outside, with no real company except for her sisters, all in the exact same situation. Placing a hand on the glass, she gives Hatchi the warmest, most reassuring smile she can muster.

"We're already friends, Hatchi."

The pale girl blinks at her for a second, surprise writ across her features, before breaking into the biggest and most genuine smile Kiri has ever seen on her. She rests her hand on the screen as well, palm-to-palm with Kiri through the video link.

"... thanks, Kiri," she smiles. "Now! You got back to school today, right? Tell me everything! Did you see the bullies you fought? How many people were all 'awesome, thank you for saving us!'? This is your first really big super-heroine thingy, you gotta handle the aftermath right!"

"Well, um, the people at school were sort of overbearing... but, um... I g-guess they were mostly g-grateful as well. Though there was one little boy who was g-getting annoying by the end of the d-day..."

* * *

Wrapped in a silent pocket of virtual defences, concealing a tiny hole in the firewalls around the virtual dojo, Kei watches quietly as her sister laughs and chatters with her new friend. Hatchi still hasn't thanked her for helping with the setup of this. Honestly, Kei isn't holding out much hope that she will - she's probably forgotten by now.

She sighs. Even if she installed something like this for Little Mommy, she wouldn't have the time to talk like this. Too busy, too snowed under with work... there are a lot of reasons, and Kei can't help but feel upset each time one is used. Yes, obviously they're true, and Yui does have a lot of work, and she will get them all stabilised and out of here and into the real world because she's the smartest person _ever_...

...but that still doesn't help _now_.

Wistfully, enviously, she goes back to watching her sister - happy and carefree - talking the night away.

* * *

**28.**

"Um... there's enough for t-two each, so p-please d-don't t-take any more than that."

The class crowds around the front row of desks, eagerly vying for the largest and tastiest looking cookies on offer. Kiri stands in front of the board, watching the tussle from behind her bangs with a faint smile. It isn't a perfect solution to her problems, but when her mama suggested an idea to improve the situation, she had jumped on board whole-heartedly.

And so, cookies. The _initial_ reaction from the class certainly seems positive... well, mostly positive. There were certainly a few variants of 'thank you, Harasami' before the flash mob formed around the trays.

Sasoriko wanders out of the melee, munching on a chocolate chip cookie in bliss and holding another protectively. She leans against the board next to Kiri and watches the scrum.

"Well, I'm not sure of the motive behind this, but it's a good thing you did it," she observes. "Things have been getting... tense, while you've been away." She finishes off the first cookie and moves onto the second, watching the densely packed crowd of classmates begin to disperse, and the ones held back by the flailing move in to get their share. Picking her words carefully, she continues, "It's not been _overt_, but... the rumours have been getting more and more insane - do you know, I actually overheard that idiot Shiro talking about 'that time two guys went in the wrong changing rooms and found two girls, completely naked, making out'? It's enough to make you sick, honestly."

Kiri sighs. "I'm sure he'll stop eventually. And the others should c-calm down much sooner. That's part of why I'm d-doing this, I'm hoping it'll g-give them something else to associate me with."

"Ah, clever. Reinforcing the image," Sasoriko smirks knowingly, "I rather thought it was something like that. But anyway, that's not the only thing that's been heating up, there have been almost a dozen more fights between the popular cliques. Stuff like stealing from each other, comments they've made behind each other's backs that have made their way back to the subject... it's been more than one a day, lately. They're at each other's throats almost all the time now."

The crowds finish clearing, leaving only Shiro, looking wounded. "Hey!" he protests, "I thought you said two for everyone?" Frowning, Kiri moves forward to look at the empty plates. "I did," she says in confusion, "unless anyone t-took more than two, there should have been... ah!" Shifting one of the trays that has ridden over another in the confusion reveals the last two cookies. Smiling, Kiri hands them to the boy, who digs in immediately as he returns to his seat. Clearing his throat to silence the low-level murmuring, the teacher stands.

"Alright, shall we all thank Miss Harasami for bringing in cookies for everyone?" A chorus of "Thank you" runs around the class in varying degrees of drone, and the teacher nods, satisfied. "Good. In that case, I believe it's time for you all to head to your classes."

Kiri's first class, along with the rest of the girls, is Home Economics. Curry is the order of the day, a simple seafood recipe that Kiri knows off by heart, having similar dishes at home dozens of time before. Smiling happily, she busily gets started setting the rice to simmer and selecting ingredients. With half an ear, she hears Rei on the other side of the room, and her smile turns into a fond grin as she listens to the girl complaining.

"Come ooo~on, there's barely enough here for a snack! An' it's so _bland!_ Can't I spice it up just a _little_ bit? An' make enough for an actual meal?"

The teacher's reaction appears to be a counter to this view, and after a small argument, Rei's grumbling joins the background chorus of muttering. At least, Kiri muses, they have managed to stop her bringing in her own ingredients. She still isn't sure what the thick brown sauce _was_, but there were still stains on the ceiling from the effect it had produced.

She sniffs. There's a distinctive smell of _burning_ in the air. Sighing heavily, she gets back to chopping ingredients for the sauce. Whoever mucked up like that must be quite a bit ahead of her, if they're already burning something.

On the other side of the room, Sasoriko hurriedly dumps water on her now-carbonised rice, and groans. How does everyone else make it look so easy? And how is she meant to have time to do this, and make something with vegetables and fish in it at the same time? Shaking several slices of octopus off her fingers, she glances hesitantly over her shoulder towards Kiri, biting her lip. She can't just move over there, the teacher is watching.

Kiri feels a burning sensation on the back of her neck, but studiously tries to ignore it. Glancing around, she can see that Sasoriko looks... more intense than usual. She turns back to her curry, hoping that Sasoriko will drop whatever she's come up with this time before it becomes too embarrassing.

"Hey! Gimme back my squid, you little thief!" The squeal of outrage cuts through the low hum of busy concentration like a knife as, yet again, two clique members drop what they're doing in favour of a squabble. Were Sasoriko less preoccupied, she would probably be reconsidering possible reasons for why the hostility between the popular elements of the class have risen so sharply, but as it is she is too busy timing her move. Waiting until the teacher's attention is entirely fixated on breaking up the two bickering girls; she hefts her ingredients and quickly totters across the room, planting them in the empty space next to Kiri.

"Sasoriko, we're supposed to be working," mutters the mousy girl out of the corner of her mouth, while handling a knife in a way that Sasoriko finds frankly disturbing. Watching the shining blade blur slightly as it reduces a chilli to slices, the pale-skinned girl frowns. A hand goes back to flick her long dark hair, before she remembers that it's tied up in a hair net. There is no choice. She's going to have to use... the puppy dog eyes.

"Kiri... look, I really need your help. I can't... do this stuff. Please. Help me salvage this... mess." She looks pleadingly at Kiri, schooling her expression into one of desperate pleading. Glancing her way, Kiri takes in her face, wavers for a moment and finally sighs.

"Fine." She moves over slightly to look at Sasoriko's progress. "... you've burned the rice. How often do you cook, anyway?"

"Um... I don't. I can't remember ever doing any outside of this class, anyway."

The sound of Rei grinding uncooked rice between her teeth, with every evident sign of enjoyment, is a background refrain in the stunned silence.

Kiri boggles. "So you... never..."

"No, never!" Sasoriko says, flatly, with a flick of her head which would be a lot more impressive if her hair wasn't in a hairnet.

"... so you don't ever cook with your mum or..."

"She doesn't cook."

Kiri blinks. "So who does?"

"Um..."

"Your dad?"

"I'm... um. Not sure."

"But... surely... _rice_..."

"Look, we can probably skip the bits when you ask me questions about this, and just accept I can't cook."

Kiri taps her fingers on the counter. She's eaten at her friend's house, so clearly they get the food from _somewhere_.

"Look, you... I... argh. Fine, just..." she gestures at the vegetables on her cutting board, "chop these, carefully, into p-pieces the same size as the ones I've already cut. Go slowly, and c-carefully. Don't put your fingers under the knife. I'll see what I can d-do about yours."

The pale girl balks. "I'm not _stupid_, you don't have to tell me not to cut myself!" she hisses.

"Says the girl who just b-burnt most of her rice," retorts Kiri, focusing on the food in question. "I can still salvage this, though. And you'd be surprised how easy it is to cut yourself b-by accident. D-do it like I was, with your fingers bent a little back from where you're c-cutting. Rest the knife against your knuckles and keep the p-point on the board."

Sasoriko blinks in mild surprise at the retort from her normally-quiet friend, but grudgingly accedes to Kiri's greater knowledge of the subject and quietly sets to work.

"... don't see why it _matters_ who does the cooking at home as long as food gets on the table... not as if I'm any good at this anyway, so why should I have to do it? Like... for some reason, it's not okay for a girl to be bad at _cooking_, but maths or music don't mean as much? Tch."

Well, relatively quietly.

* * *

**29.**

"Onee-chaaaan!"

Kiri closes her eyes briefly and listens to the sound of Sasoriko's teeth grinding. It is, by her count, the sixth time today that Kuro Kanjera has located her in order to vocally proclaim his affections to the world and sundry.

It is, not to put too fine a point on it, becoming _a mite annoying_.

"Does he _ever_ shut up?" grinds out Sasoriko from beside her. Wordlessly, Kiri shakes her head as she turns to face her paramour.

"Hello, Kuro," she greets wearily, not missing Sasoriko's subtle muttering in the background.

"... no idea why you're polite to him, it's just encouraging him further... I mean what, do you _want_ him to keep this up?"

Kiri ignores her, with some effort, and focuses on the junior excitedly humming around her. "Kuro," she starts. Definitely not snappishly, because she's a nice girl, and thus doesn't do things like snap at annoying little pests or sullenly respond to their incessant babbling. No, she speaks calmly and politely, with respect for the younger boy's feelings that is only slightly forced. "I appreciate that you... um... that you..." she quickly searches for a word that will convey the right impression - or rather that won't convey the wrong one - "that you are g-grateful t-to me, b-but really, you've thanked me enough, and I am k-kind of... um... busy. T-talking. T-to my friend." She gestures at Sasoriko, hoping that this will convince Kuro to finally go away and leave her alone.

Kuro frowns for a moment, before his expression brightens triumphantly, "I get it! This is like a test, to prove my worth! What you're actually saying is that you don't want to be talking to her, so I have to get you out of it, all sneaky like! Never fear, onee-sama! I'll save you from the scary goth girl!"

A small choking noise comes from beside Kiri as Sasoriko processes this chain of deductions and sputters incoherently with rage. "Scary- _scary goth girl?_" she grinds out, through the haze of fury. Kiri surreptitiously manoeuvres herself slightly further between the pale girl and Kuro. She wants the boy to leave her alone. She doesn't want him _dead_.

"Look, um..." she sighs, "K-Kuro..."

"Onee-sama! You said my name!"

Kiri's eye twitches slightly, but she rallies the remains of her composure valiantly and continues, "I'm... planning. For something. A... project, which is very... important and... um... awesome. Like when I saved you. So I need t-to b-be left _alone_ while I finish p-planning for it. You understand?"

Eyes wide and worshipful, Kuro almost shouts his affirmation, barely catching himself in time to stifle the outburst as he remembers that there are other people nearby. Mutely, vibrating with excitement, he nods happily and rushes off.

Both girls watch him go with no small amount of relief. Sasoriko tosses her hair and snorts in mild disgust, "Gods, Kiri, _why_ do you keep encouraging him like that? You know he's only going to take it as a sign that you're endorsing his behaviour. I know you're trying to be... kind, or something, but really, you just need to shoot him down. Hard. And soon, before he starts getting like Shiro, the stupid ass, and assuming that 'not if you were the last male on the planet, you ignorant juvenile slime-mould' means 'yes'."

She pauses, cocking her head in abrupt puzzlement, "Where _is_ the puke-brained little toad, anyway? He hasn't tried to use any ridiculously stupid pickup lines on me all day, and it's almost the end of lunch. I don't remember seeing him in the classroom this morning, either. I mean, granted, I try to avoid looking at him at all whenever possible, but it certainly seemed a lot quieter than usual."

"What, Shiro?" Kensuke drops into the conversation, passing by the girls on his way inside. "Haven't you heard? He's off sick."

With glacial speed, Sasoriko's gaze turns inexorably toward Kiri. "I... _see_..." she says slowly.

"Yeah! And not just a stomach bug, either, he's _really_ sick. Hatane from the year above said that his older sister's boyfriend said that he spent half of last night puking his guts up! He's been sweating, throwing up and moaning all morning. Not even able to watch TV, he feels so rotten." Kensuke waves his hands animatedly as he speaks, surprisingly enthused at the misfortunes of his classmate.

"... how... _unfortunate_." Sasoriko's eyes still haven't left Kiri. "Thank you, Aida. You've been very... informative." It is a clear dismissal, and he leaves to go inside and chatter about the new development with the rest of the class, enthusiasm untouched by Sasoriko's apparent lack of interest. As soon as he is out of earshot, Sasoriko leans across and whispers frantically.

"Kiri! You _poisoned_ him? I know he's annoying, but isn't that a bit of an overreaction!"

"W-what? No! I w-would never... I d-don't even know _how_ t-to... I didn't poison him!"

"I didn't even _see_ you- ah, of course! That's why you gave him the last two cookies... but how did you manoeuvre him into not getting until the end? I was watching you, you didn't seem to do anything... ah! It was Rei, wasn't it! And... the poison... the icing decorations! The napkins you handed out, of course! Genius! No one would expect the napkins to have a fine powder on them, would they?"

"S-Sasoriko, I _bought_ those! Th-they were sealed in p-p-plastic the whole way f-from the store, you _saw me open them!_ I d-didn't poison him, I swear!"

"What did you use, a medical-grade emetic? Hmm. You know, if they run a blood test for any reason, they'll see that, and you might get in trouble if they can trace it back to you. You're still not quite at the level of subtlety you really need to be safe."

Kiri lets out a stifled, wordless cry of frustration, kept low to avoid attracting any attention. It's useless to protest any further, she knows. Once Sasoriko has latched onto a theory, she won't let go of it even if it's proven wrong in twenty metre high letters written in fire.

"Still, it was certainly much more discrete than sending Rei after him."

As if summoned by the mere mention of her name, the blunette in question pops her head over Sasoriko's shoulder. "Heee~ey. What's up?"

Sasoriko lets out a surprised yelp, jumping away, before mentally editing it into a more dignified gasp of mild shock. Kiri, by now thoroughly inured to Rei's sudden entrances and exits, merely raises an eyebrow. She has noticed that her dark-haired friend sounds remarkably like a small, soft, adorable, fuzzy animal when frightened. She has never mentioned this to Sasoriko, however, as she is not entirely sure what the results of such news would be, though she is relatively confident that the reaction would not be positive.

Sasoriko gathers herself, regaining her composure, and looks up into two sets of curious eyes, one blood-red crimson, the other cornflower blue. And realises, with a dawning horror, just _how many times_ Kiri has made her cookies. Any of those times... if Kiri had been annoyed at her, or thought she'd been rude or insulting recently, or... or... wait, has she ever gotten sick after a visit from Kiri with cookies? She thinks frantically... but no, she has them so often, at least once a week, that it would be impossible to separate out the coincidences from the real cases. There's _no way to be sure_.

Rei observes the rapidly paling girl with mild concern, "Heee~ey," she offers, "you look kind of ill. Or wobbly. Did you not have enough to eat, or something?"

"N-no! No, I- I'm fine! J-just fine!" Sasoriko manages to croak out, mind whirring in frenzied terror. "I... something to... class! Yes... I need to... go get ready for... um..." no, not her next class, Kiri shared that. She needed to get away, sit down somewhere quiet and _think_, "... music! After school! Yes, I need to... to go get ready for music after school!" Spinning round, she hurriedly flees the pair as fast as she can without sacrificing any more of her dignity.

Kiri and Rei are left standing, slightly confused, in her wake. Kiri half raises a finger, feebly.

"But... it's lunchtime. School doesn't end for hours..."

Rei shrugs laconically, and claps her hands in delight, turning back to the initial reason she came for "Sooo~o! Guess what!"

"... what?" A deep rooted intuition that Kiri has found to be invariably accurate when dealing with Rei and Hatchi springs to life in her gut, screaming at her to flee. The instinct is verified seconds later, as Rei bounces up and down, squealing happily like a young child presented with a new toy.

"Hatchi told me last night! Today, we start you on _blind fighting!_"

Kiri suppresses the urge to whimper.

* * *

**30.**

"... so I know sometimes I'm sort of snappish, but honestly, that's just who I am, and you know I don't _mean_ anything by it, of course."

"Mrrrg."

"And... and I know we irritate each other at times, because that's what friends do, right? But then they forgive each other, and don't... you know, seek revenge or anything, right? That would be like breaking some sort of... some sort of friend contract. So that doesn't happen, is what I mean, you follow?"

"Mmrrg."

"And trust! Friends should be able to trust one another! So if, say, one friend were to give another friend something, as a present, the second friend should be able to trust that the present was... was a real present, and not a... a trick, or a prank, or anything like that. You see?"

"Murggh."

Sasoriko pauses in her monologue as she realises that... well, it's a monologue. There is a distinct lack of participation in the conversational back-and-forth from her friend. Frowning, she examines Kiri more closely, and notes the unkempt, unwashed hair, the bags under the eyes and the general exhausted posture. She recognises these symptoms, after a moment's thought. Kiri has displayed them on several occasions before, during the nearly-four years Sasoriko has known her.

"... has Hatchi stepped up your training again?" she ventures, in a pall of morbid curiosity.

"Mrnnh."

Sasoriko winces sympathetically. "Ouch. That... um... that sounds... tiring."

"Mmnng."

The chances of getting through to Kiri in this state are, Sasoriko knows, slim to none. And any events strong enough to rouse her from her torpor are likely, in this state of exhaustion, to make her cranky, a state Sasoriko has never actually seen from Kiri before. The dark-haired girl considers this prospect briefly, before deciding firmly that whatever a cranky Kiri turns out to be like, she has no desire to witness it firsthand.

"Okay, I'll just... um... go ahead to class. Okay?"

"Mzzmn."

Biting her lip with a twinge of guilt for leaving her friend in this state, Sasoriko hurries off. It's okay, she reassures herself. Nobody is likely to attack her or anything, and it's not like she can be seriously hurt in a _school_, of all places. Worst case scenario, she falls asleep standing up, and someone drags her to the nurse, where she can get some much needed rest. Yes, and Sasoriko wouldn't be much help there, because - she glowers slightly - she doesn't really have the physique to lug Kiri around. Especially not with how... big... the other girl is getting. And more importantly, how _heavy_.

Still, she thinks, she can also make Kiri's excuses in the next class, as an act of generosity. Yes, that will make up nicely for leaving her behind, and be her Good Deed for the day. Yes. She nods happily, satisfied with her conclusions.

Back in the corridor, Kiri trudges along slowly towards class, mind turning over idly. There had been... talking. Yes. Talking. And now there isn't talking anymore. But there is still the fiery, aching pain in every muscle of her body.

...damn. That's a bad thing. Fiery aching pain is bad.

More talking. Not near her, though. Further away. She listens absently, with half an ear.

"... stupid blabbermouth coming..."

"Quick, if we push her into the Blob..."

"... if she realises it's us, she'll..."

"No, we just need to..."

Kiri tunes them out, and keeps trudging along. She makes it barely three more steps before something heavy hits her very hard in the side, sending her tumbling into the wall. Which gives way, swinging open and dumping her onto the floor. A shocked squeal from the direction the blow came from reaches her ears, and as she looks up blearily at the swimming haze of light and colour, framed by darkness, a blurry shape darts forward and pulls something across the opening.

Slam. Click. Giggling. "Enjoy your stay in there, dorks!" calls a muffled voice, and footsteps sound, rapidly fading away.

Still tired, headachy and muddled, not to mention somewhat dizzy from the fall, it takes Kiri a moment to piece together what has happened. She must be in one of the janitor storerooms - yes, if she fell against a door, that would explain why it gave way. And then... one of the people who pushed her...

Mired in the darkness, Kiri's expression sours. One of the people who pushed her must have pulled the door shut, and from the sound of things, locked it. Damn.

Abruptly, she becomes aware that she is lying on something uncomfortable. Two sort of... long... rounded... things. That are hard. And bumpy. And-

"Could you please," a voice says, very deliberately, from the darkness a little above her, "get _off_ my legs?"

* * *

The teacher's drone is rudely interrupted by the trilling of Rei's cell phone. The teacher shoots her a glare, drumming his fingers on his desk. "Ayanami, is it NERV?"

"Nope!" Rei replies cheerfully, checking the caller ID quickly.

"Then hand it over."

Pouting, Rei does so, grumbling under her breath on the way up to the teacher's desk. Quietly, Sasoriko checks the rest of the class. No Kiri. And Rei's phone just rang... as quickly and surreptitiously as she can, she sets her own phone to silent. Just in time, too. Seconds after she makes the alteration, the sleek silver handset begins to vibrate as a call comes in. Rolling her eyes, Sasoriko checks the caller ID, keeping it under her desk, out of sight of the teacher. As she expected, it is Kiri. She waits for it to stop, and replies with a text.

_In class. Rei's phone confiscated. Where are you? Will come and help as soon as class is over, presuming you haven't dealt with things your own way by then._

It takes a few minutes for a reply to come back, and Sasoriko is forced to leave it until later, as the teacher is watching the class with rather more attention than is normal. She shrugs internally. It's not as if she knowing right now will help much, since she still can't leave until after the lesson. And in all likelihood, Kiri is probably just bedded down at the nurse's office.

Mind set at ease, she gets back to her work with a will. Her grades have been slipping lately, and it will not be tolerated at home if she fails to ace the next set of monthly tracking tests.

* * *

"Well?"

"She's in c-class. Rei's phone has b-been confiscated," Kiri flushes at that, her red cheeks thankfully hidden by the darkness. She'll need to apologise profusely for getting her friend's phone taken at the next opportunity. "B-but she says she'll c-come and help as soon as class is over, so we just need to wait until then."

An exasperated snort comes from the other occupant of the storeroom at that, "Urgh. I _hate_ waiting around helplessly. I swear, when I get my hands on the bitch who pushed me... grah!"

"You shouldn't start fights in school," Kiri attempts, in a placating manner. "The t-teachers will g-get cross at you. Just t-tell the Class Rep, or the t-teacher, and they can be d-disciplined. Attacking them won't solve anything."

Utter silence, and Kiri can almost _hear_ the other girl's incredulous look. "This... coming... from the girl who beat the snot out of four seniors, and scared them to the point where two of them transferred out? Practice what you preach, much?"

Kiri's blush intensifies considerably. Actually, she's somewhat surprised that it isn't lighting up the near-pitch black storeroom by now. "I- b-b-but... no! I d-d-didn't m-mean t-to... th-that is, I wasn't g-going to... I... they d-didn't... it was..."

A giggle, "Hey, hey, calm down. I was only joking. Oh yeah, I know who you are, cause I saw you on the way in, but you probably didn't, right? It's me, Emi. New kid, yeah?"

"Oh. Yes," Kiri manages, still flustered. "Um... sorry for... uh... for landing on you."

She can hear the smile in Emi's voice as the other girl answers, "Hey, don't worry about it. Not like you had a choice in it. Heck, if you're apologising for that, I should be apologising for being pushed into you."

"No, no! You d-didn't mean t-to- oh. Uh..."

Silence reigns for a beat before both girls break into giggles, the awkward tension of the situation dissolving as they laugh helplessly.

"Okay, okay," Emi manages to force out through the slightly hysterical chuckling, "how about we call it quits, huh?"

Kiri nods gratefully, and instantly regrets the action as her headache flares. Again. Despite herself, a small whimper slips out, and she feels Emi's hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay? You don't sound so good."

"Just... a b-bit sore. Exercise."

"Hmm." Emi doesn't sound especially convinced, but lets the matter go. "So, your friend's gonna come let us out after the lesson's over, yeah?"

"Yes. Sasoriko. She can't g-get out of c-class now, and Rei- um- Rei g-got her phone t-taken away when I c-called her."

"Hmm. Sasoriko. The creepy short one?"

"No! Well. Maybe. Sort of. A little bit. She's not _that_ c-creepy, she's just a bit... intense. But... um... she's lovely when you get to know her?" In retrospect, Kiri thinks, that should probably not have been a question. Hastily, she struggles to make up for it, "Really though, she's not creepy! No-one that useless at c-cooking, or... or d-doing _anything_ like that could be creepy properly! How could anyone b-be creeped out by someone who can't even b-boil rice without b-burning it?"

"Seriously? She's that bad? How? Rice is easy!"

"I know! B-but she just... seriously!" Kiri throws her hands up, wincing as one of them catches a shelf hard across her knuckles, "How do you b-burn rice like that! I don't even know how she _b-began_ to... and then she had no idea who does the c-cooking in her house! How c-can you not know that! I mean, I like her, b-but why did I get p-paired with her in Home Economics? And Rei was... well, you heard, she _ate_ some of the rice, and it wasn't even c-c-cooked yet and... argh! Why does everyone d-do silly things in one of the things I'm really good at?"

She pants for several seconds, feeling strangely light. Emi chuckles quietly. "Sounds like that needed venting," she remarks.

"Um... yes. I think so." Kiri ducks her head, embarrassed. "Sorry for- um..."

"Unloading on me? Eh, don't be. No harm done, right? Tell you how you can make it up to me, though, if you want."

"... yes?" Tiny alarm bells start ringing in Kiri's head. Experience with Hatchi has made her extremely wary of agreeing to things without first finding out exactly what she is agreeing _to_.

"We're stuck in here till the end of the lesson... urgh, what did I just put my hand in? Oh, yuck, it's on my dress! Urgh. Great. But yeah, we're stuck in here till the end of the lesson, right? And it's a deadbolt on the door, so no chance of picking it. So... talk to me. Not like we have much else to do in here, till your friend gets here and lets us out."

A spark of something lights up inside Kiri. Rei is... Rei, and brave, and amazing. And Sasoriko and Hatchi are... well, they're friends, and she likes them. And Hikari is nice to her, and makes time to check that she's okay when it looks like she's having trouble, and Kiri is grateful for that, but... even so, that's still just four friends. And maybe... maybe this might be a chance to make a fifth?

"Okay!" she blurts before she can stop herself. "Um..." desperately, she searches for something to talk about. It needs to be a good subject - cool, sophisticated and suave - something to make it clear that she's a good friend to have, so that Emi will be instantly impressed.

"Um... so... did... you... move here recently?" Wait, she knows that, Kiri thinks. "And... uh... what was it like in... in... in... um..."

Emi steps in to rescue her. "How about we start with the basics?" A groping hand lands on her thigh, making her yelp, before it moves over hastily to take her hand and shake it. "Hi! I'm Emi Akaho. Nice to meet you."

"Uh... I... um..." Kiri stammers, suddenly shy beyond words "... hello." She smiles, tremulously, at the dark shape in front of her, barely visible. "I'm Kiri Harasami. Um... nice to meet you?"

A chuckle, and a tone tinged with warmth and friendliness. "Heh, good enough for me. We'll take it from here, I guess."

* * *

**31.**

Standing in a corner out of the way of the throngs of students milling about the playground in their lunch break, Sasoriko frowns, pacing from side to side in front of the girl and staring at her. What has drawn Kiri's attention to her? What role does she play in Kiri's plan? Is there something about her, some nebulous quality that Sasoriko is missing? Is she...

"What're you doin'?" the target of her observations asks, tilting her head lazily.

...hmm. No, she doesn't seem to be particularly in shape, and she certainly isn't attractive. She's not stupid, from what little attention Sasoriko has paid to her in class, but hardly a genius. Which means that...

"No, seriously. What's going on?"

...maybe she's just a friend.

A rather annoying one, already.

"Are you even capable of speech?"

Ignoring the girl, Sasoriko glances across at Kiri, on the far side of the playground. The blue-haired girl she is talking to quietly, under the watchful eye of a middle-aged, brown-haired woman, would appear to most people to be Rei. Sasoriko knows better.

"So who's the woman? Ayanami's mum? What's she doing here?"

Sighing, Sasoriko gives up. If answering the girl is the only way to shut her up...

"That's not Rei, I don't think. It's one of her sisters. And she's talking to Kiri, so it's probably Hatchi." She meets Emi's quizzical expression with a smug look, and elaborates.

"Rei has about half a dozen twin sisters, but they have heart problems, so they have to stay inside most of the time and be treated. Going around outside runs the risk of causing attacks, or complications. Every so often, from what I understand, one of them spends the day out and about accompanied by their mother, and Rei spends the day with them. That," she nods at the girl excitedly gesturing next to Kiri, "is Hatchi. Kiri is close friends with her, and I believe she's the one who got Kiri into martial arts. And ballet."

Emi nods absently, absorbing this. "Hang on... if there are half a dozen of them, then wouldn't they be... uh... sextuplets? Not twins?"

"... _shut up_. You know what I meant, don't be pedantic." A football bounces past the girls towards Kiri and her friend, chased by a screaming mob comprised mainly of juniors. A few seconds later, it sails back past again at head height, making a slight whirring sound from the speed it is travelling at. Sasoriko spares a smirk at the unruly rabble of children chasing it, who seem to have mostly fallen over one another in trying to turn around, and turns back to Emi.

"Now, if you're going to be friends with Kiri - and honestly, I will never understand why she chooses the friends she does - there are some things you need to know about first. Ground rules, if you like, for dealing with her." Sasoriko ticks them off on her fingers as she counts.

"One. Always stay on her good side. She's fine with speaking your mind, but if she loses the stutter or glares at you, drop the subject and don't pick it up again for a week or two. You do _not_ want her mad at you."

Emi looks at the mousy-haired girl on the other side of the playground dubiously. She is now talking to the brown haired woman, and looking more than a little uncomfortable. She looks back to Sasoriko, whose expression is entirely serious, and raises an eyebrow. "Riiight..."

"Two. There's a kid who follows her around and has a crush on her. His name is Kuro. Do not mention anything positive about him. Don't say he's sort of sweet, or that his determination is admirable, or that you have to at least be impressed by how set on her he is. Not even as a joke. Ever. Seriously."

Considering her next point for a moment, a wistful smile crosses the pale girl's lips, "hmm... ah, yes. Three. If you have a chance to sample her cooking, take it. Really, it's gorgeous."

Emi glances at Kiri again, still talking to the brown haired woman and fiddling nervously with her skirt hem. The blue-haired girl - Hatchi - pounces on her from behind as she watches, dragging her away from her mother and picking up their discussion again.

"Four," continues Sasoriko, tone shifting back to business, "I've been doing ballet since I was six, six times a week. She can throw me around like a rag doll. She might look a bit on the plump side, but most of that is muscle. Don't underestimate her."

Emi's eyebrow raises further in doubt, "What, seriously? Come on, don't joke around. She didn't seem like-"

"Five," Sasoriko cuts over her, curtly, "Never, ever, _ever_ tell her that she looks cute when she's angry. Ever. She does, but if you know what's good for you, pretend that she's the most terrifying thing on the planet. The last person to say otherwise got tased."

Emi's stare is now incredulous as she looks between Sasoriko and the meek girl she met scant days ago, who is talking quietly with her blunette friend.

"Six. She carries a taser on her. It is modified specially by _one of Rei's sisters_. That one, in fact. She has few hesitations about using it." Sasoriko considers this for a second, "Of course, if you're in a situation where she's angry at you, you already broke Rule One. And pointing out that she's cute when she's angry at someone else is a Rule One violation as well, so-" she cuts off as the girl in question walks over with Hatchi, who nods at Sasoriko with an approximation at formal acknowledgement, slinging an arm around Kiri's shoulders. The latter looks mildly uneasy at this, as if waiting for a shoe to drop, but accepts it quietly enough and doesn't cause a fuss.

"Um, right. Emi, this is Hatchi. Hatchi, this is Emi. Sasoriko, c-can I ask you t-to-" Kiri is abruptly cut off as a shout resounds through the playground, emanating from a slight young figure that has just barely worked its way out of the scrum surrounding the football.

"Hey, you! Get away from my onee-sama!" Kuro storms toward Hatchi, working himself up as he goes into a righteous fury, "I'm the only one allowed to do stuff like that! Get your arm off her! She's gonna date me when she's older! You're just trying to steal her!" His focus switches to Kiri, who pinches her nose in frustration, "Onee-sama! You gotta get away from her, or beat her up or something! She's trying to-"

Casually, Hatchi picks him up by the collar, squinting at him slightly, as if he's... well, a misbehaving rabbit. The attempts of the kicking and thrashing boy to break free are hopeless, and her arm barely even tenses as she absorbs the aborted motions.

"Hatchi," warns Yui, moving over hastily.

"No!" Hatchi says, ignoring her mother. "No!" she repeats, as if from memory. "When a girl says no, no means no." Her hair ruffles in the wind, and she tosses her head to rearrange the stray locks blown across her face. "An' anyway, Kiri's mine. You can't have her."

Struggling madly, Kuro manages to swing far enough to launch a kick at Hatchi's side, which she effortlessly flows out of the way of. "See, I was going to throw you in the rubbish bins over there," she continues, pointing to the other side of the playground. "But Little Mommy's watching me, so I'll get in trouble if I do it where she can see me."

"Hatchi..." Kiri looks like she would dearly like to stay out of the burgeoning lesson in discipline, but steps in nonetheless, "p-please put him d-down. He's... annoying, b-but I c-can handle him."

Red eyes focus on her for a moment, evaluating, before their owner shrugs and lets go. Kuro lands with a thump, yelps in pain and lets out a few choice curses before realising that he is still sitting right next to the girl who, mere moments ago, had him suspended by the collar with one hand. He squeaks and beats a hasty retreat, diving back into the crowds of children.

"Um. Okay. Where was I... ah, yes. Sasoriko, c-can I ask you to p-put off our study session t-tonight until t-tomorrow? Hatchi wants to spend some t-time with me t-tonight, and she d-doesn't get to g-go out much, so..."

"Sure, sure," Sasoriko nods obligingly and Kiri smiles gratefully.

"Okies!" grins Hatchi, "In that case, Little Mommy and me gotta go find the milkshake store, 'cause I got stuff for him. _Ideas_ stuff. Seeya Kiri, seeya Sasoriko, seeya... uh... new girl person who I don't know yet." Nodding to each of them in turn, she skips over to Yui and the pair make their way across the crowded playground and out of the school.

Whatever Kiri would have said next is sadly lost. Just as she starts to speak again, the wind picks up again, a sharp gust swirling through the playground and drawing numerous squeals and yells as it snatches at skirts or hair and steals anything light enough to carry. Sasoriko and Emi, partially shielded by the walls on two sides of them, are unaffected.

Kiri is not.

"Black. Wow. Didn't expect that. Present from Kuro, were they?"

Sasoriko facepalms in sheer, unmitigated frustration at Emi's blithe comment, accompanied by a cheeky grin. A metallic clang causes all three girls to glance sideways and see Kuro, gaping, on the floor by the metal bicycle rails.

"Hey, speak of the devil," laughs Emi, "You should really watch where you'd going, stud. Even if your girlfriend does look cute."

"... ... ..." says Kiri, gaze slowly moving back over to the short-haired girl. Her expression is not one that communicates great friendliness.

"... ah. Um. Ah. Sasoriko, you were joking about the taser, right?" Emi says nervously, shifting slightly and becoming increasingly aware that two directions are blocked by walls, and both of the others lead past Kiri. "...right?"

She looks around, and finds a sudden, and not entirely surprising, absence of the short, dark-haired girl.

"... ... Sasoriko?"

* * *

3**2.**

Weekends, in the life of Kirima Harasami, can rarely be described as 'peaceful'. This one, however, is shaping up to be chaotic even by her impressive standards. The vivid flashbacks to her ninth birthday are not helping in her struggle to maintain composure.

"Come ooo~oon, Kiri! Move faster!" calls Hatchi from up ahead. Even running flat out, spurred by the excited and slightly panicked proclamations of a 'super-mega-awesome emergency thing', Kiri is hard-pressed to keep up with the blue-haired girl. She skids around a corner shielding her eyes against the evening sun. Her shirt clings uncomfortably to her back, damp with sweat, and she spares a moment to thank fortune that Hatchi chose to grab her _before_ her session with Batou, but _after_ she had changed into her workout clothes.

... actually, thinking about it, that was probably intentional on the blunette's part. Slowing to a walk as she sees Hatchi up ahead with two of her sisters, Kiri winces hard. The pain in her ribs, which has been steadily amplifying throughout the run, now chooses to explode into an all-pervading ache throughout her torso. Doubling over, a soft groan escapes her lips and she struggles not to fall over as lights wink on and off behind her clenched eyes.

"Kiri? What are you doing? C'mon, get up! We need you to help!" chivvies Hatchi. She sounds disgustingly energetic, and entirely unsympathetic to Kiri's current state.

"Just... need a minute..." manages the mousy girl, leaning heavily on the wall next to her and trying to breathe slowly and steadily. "Hurts. Still... not q-quite recovered from the fight." It hurts to move, but she manages to force herself upright, clawing briefly at the wall when a starburst of pain goes off just below her lungs for a second as she straightens.

"Look, are you gonna stop lagging behind soon?" asks Hatchi impatiently "Cause this is _sorta_ important. An' you're totally slowing everyone down, when you're meant to be helping an' stuff. That's bad performance for a sidekick. Kidnapping is all part of the job, but letting the team down? Isn't."

Wincing from the harsh reprimand, and smarting slightly from the injustice of it, Kiri nods nonetheless. There is little point arguing, she knows. Even if the accusations are unjust, once Hatchi has made up her mind about something, it is extremely difficult to change her views. Pushing herself off the wall, she nods glumly and follows Hatchi over to the other two Ree, who are arguing quietly.

"Going the wrong way _still_," the first of them says. She actually sounds rather exasperated, which is a tone that Kiri only normally hears from Hatchi when she's on the edge of collapsing. She being Kiri, of course. Hatchi, from all that Kiri has seen, simply doesn't _get_ tired.

"I'm telling you," says the other heatedly, "They're gonna head for open spaces, for grazing an' stuff! We should go to the park first!"

"No. The behavioural modifications, remember? They won't act like normal rabbits. Better to sweep city, put up posters. More chance of finding them that way that running around randomly."

"We can put up the posters on the _way_ to the park! It's worth a shot!"

"Argh! Logical fatality! You're assuming you're right, even with evidence you aren't!"

The second girl pauses, a puzzled look briefly flitting across her face. "Uh... I think you mean 'fallacy' there, Iti."

A vicious glare is her only answer before Hatchi interrupts the two, clapping her hands in a businesslike manner and turning to Kiri.

"Right, listen," she says, "As my minion, kinda got something for you to do. See...well, it was nobody's fault that the rabbits got out, and it certainly wasn't someone's fault that they're in power armour, and no one has to be yelled at by Zyuu for being all irresponsible and stuff. Which I totally wasn't incidentally." A thought strikes her. "Oooh! Since you're my friend now and all, that means you should get to meet my sisters! And be formally introduced an' stuff! Apart from Rei. You've met Rei. But this is Iti," she gestures to the first girl, "and this is Zyuu. Zyuu, Iti, this is Kiri."

She grins sunnily for a moment before switching back to business, "But yeah, while it _totally_ wasn't anyone's fault that the rabbits got out, they sort of did anyway, so we're gonna try an' find them, an' you're gonna help."

An awkward silence falls as this is considered. It is broken by Iti.

"Liar," she says flatly. Hatchi bristles indignantly. "Don't call Kiri a liar! She can be really sorta helpful sometimes!"

Iti stares momentarily and starts to say something, but apparently thinks better of it. "C'mon," she sniffs, "we're wasting time."

"Yeah, I suppose." The second girl, Zyuu, chooses this moment to speak. "Hatchi, you sure she can... you know, keep up?"

"Yes!" Hatchi actually sounds rather offended at the question, "Of course she can! Probably. She's not _that_ pathetic."

"If you say so..." Zyuu still sounds uncertain, but shrugs the matter off unconcernedly. Turning, she picks up an ominously large box. "Okay, Kiri? After _Hatchi_ let the rabbits out cause she switched with Siyon to go out with Little Mommy when she _should_ have been watching them..." the glare that accompanies this indicates that it is probably said more for Hatchi's benefit than Kiri's, "... we did a little reesearch, an' it turns out that people put up posters when they lose pets an' stuff. So we made a load, an' now we're gonna put 'em all up. An' you can carry them for us!" She hefts the box. It is almost the size of Kiri's torso, and considerably wider. Kiri eyes in with no small amount of dread.

"Okay then!" chirps Hatchi, "Let's get going! This is the _best plan ever!_"

* * *

The box is heavy. Not as heavy as it started out as, of course - the sheer _number_ of posters the Ree used has made sure of that, it had seemed for the first few hectic minutes as if they were attempting - with considerable success - to plant posters on every door, window, lamppost and wall. They must have used up more than a hundred in the first street alone.

Unfortunately, they also moved _fast_. Despite running as fast as she could to keep up, Kiri had soon been left behind. Which is why she is currently trudging sullenly along the pavement, half-empty box sagging in her arms, muttering to herself. Dumping the remaining posters is, of course, not even an option. Likewise giving up on trying to catch up. Hatchi will probably already have thought up half a dozen inventive new punishments for 'falling behind', if she runs into Kiri again and finds her not even making an effort, there will be hell to pay. So, box held awkwardly against her heaving, aching chest, she slogs onward, searching for the albino sisters.

"Stupid evening and stupid p-posters and stupid rabbits I d-don't even know anything ab-bout anyway... I mean, since when d-does Hatchi have rabbits? She's never mentioned them, and... and p-putting up p-posters like that is stupid and she's stupid and this is all stupid and the rabbits are stupid and..."

She is not, it must be said, searching very hard.

"... and another thing, why choose _me_ t-to c-carry the stupid b-box? D-doesn't she have anyone else to g-go and b-bother and d-drag around the p-place for stupid errands and stupid reasons that d-don't make any stupid sense?"

A quiet voice at the back of her head suggests that she's probably been spending too much time around Sasoriko, if she's using the word 'stupid' that much. She ignores it. It's a stupid voice.

"Why not c-carry it _herself_, if it's so stupidly important? Why b-bother me?"

She doesn't have anyone else, the voice points out. Kiri ignores it again, despite the seeping feelings of guilt that coil around her stomach and squeeze painfully.

"It's not like she isn't strong enough to... um..."

It is at this point that Kiri becomes aware of two things. Firstly, that she has at some point left the pavement and wandered into a park. Secondly, that she can see something moving out of the corner of her eye. Normally, she would brush this off as just a wild animal sniffing around in the park - nothing special - but Hatchi's lessons in situational awareness have not been entirely wasted on her, and something about the way it is moving seems... wrong. Off. Unusual.

Also, on a more pragmatic level, it is less than a metre high, and neon pink. That's something of a hint. Careful not to alert the Pink Thing to her attention, she continues walking, gently allowing her eyes to slide over to the right.

And drops the box.

Several seconds pass in silence as Kiri and the Pink Thing stare at one another. Eventually, she manages to regain enough control over her vocal chords to speak, in a slightly dazed, disbelieving tone. The tone of one who has seen something so strange, so impossibly mind-boggling, that nothing else _can_ be said. A tone which has been used, throughout history, in response to the most astonishing, incredible experiences humanity has found itself observing.

"... huh."

Giving her a wise, sagely look, the Pink Thing wiggles its nose at her in solemn greeting and goes back to rooting through the grass in search of tasty morsels. Looking at it clearly, Kiri is able to see that the animal itself isn't pink. In fact... the animal itself is one she _recognises_. Personally!

"My... my b-_birthday p-party?_" she stammers out, incredulous. "B-but... that was three _years_ ago! How... why d-did they keep these? _Where_ did they k-keep these?"

If the rabbit has an answer, it doesn't seem willing to share it. Kiri looks over the... well, the armour it is wearing, there really is no other word for it. Sleek bracers enclose its limbs, and a complex looking jacket covers its back and sides, sleek lines of metal and plastic shifting as the animal moves. Listening hard, Kiri can hear servos whirring quietly inside the contraption as it does so. The body plate connects haphazardly to a helmet-like structure which protects the rabbit's skull and straps around its lower jaw. Bizarrely, holes have been left open for the ears to flop out. Combined with the fact that someone has painted the entire assembly pink and laboriously hand-drawn a Hello Kitty mascot onto the headpiece, and the effect is... peculiar. Not to mention disconcerting.

A thump sounds from behind her, and Kiri turns to find another rabbit, clad in the same strange protective covering. Rather than nibbling at the grass, however, this one is looking at her, ears perked up. Another thump, this time from the direction she had been walking in. Another rabbit cocks its head in curiosity, fixing her with the same eerily intense stare.

Acting on a hunch, Kiri quickly swivels to look back the way she has come. She just barely catches a glimpse of the pink shape through the bushes several metres off before it rockets over them in an enormous jump, at least six or seven times its own height and length. The thump when it lands is familiar by now, and the stares are starting to make her uncomfortable.

Several more thumps in swift succession announce the arrival of more, boxing her in completely. They begin to circle, and she swivels, frantically trying to keep track of the intense stares. There are... half a dozen? No, more. Seven or eight... maybe nine, it's hard to tell. Slipping a hand into a pocket, she flicks the safety catch off her taser and wishes - for the first time since getting the thing - that she had not taped over the button that activates Hatchi's _special features_.

A brief moment's consideration hastily removes this wish - she's not sure what the rabbits are capable of, but the taser is directly from Hatchi. It could do _anything_ to her. Nevertheless, the sentiment is still there. The taser looks very small, and the rabbits look very big.

Rabbits aren't usually predatory, Kiri knows. These ones, however, don't seem to be playing by the rules. And if they're acting like predators, then that means that the first attack won't come from the ones she can see. Keeping as many of them in sight as she can - a surprisingly difficult task, with the way they're circling - she adopts a ready stance, listens and waits.

_There_.

Servos whir and machinery wheezes as one of them jumps. Quick as a snake, Kiri twists and brings the taser round hard. The pink mass is larger and faster moving than she had expected, and it clips her shoulder as it passes. Nonetheless, the taser connects with a satisfying spark and the rabbit jerks spasmodically for a second after it lands, before falling over. Concerned, Kiri hurries over to check that it's still breathing.

Seconds after doing so and seeing the telltale rise and fall of its chest, she realises her mistake. A hard, heavy mass hits her from behind and knocks her to the ground. Stars and coloured lights explode - again - behind her eyes as her still-tender ribs are abused further, but she stubbornly rolls it off and jabs backwards, thumbing the taser trigger again. A cracking sound signifies her lapine assailant going still and she forces herself upright again as fast as she can.

The third rabbit meets an uppercut to the bottom of its jaw, which disconcerts it enough for her to grab it around the middle and heave it around. It is too heavy to lift fully, but she doesn't need to do so. Instead, she simply swivels fast and lets go, sending it crashing into the fourth, already charging from behind her. Both of them go down in a tangle of limbs and ears, and she smiles in triumph. She can do this! She can actually do this!

The fifth, sixth and seven rabbits tackle her from behind simultaneously.

* * *

Kiri isn't sure how long she spends under the weight of five armour-clad Flemish Giants. She _is_ sure that she has a new contender for the all-time least comfortable situation she has ever been in, and that the large rabbits are _entirely_ too free with what they nibble on and press their noses against. She is fairly sure that the one lying across her neck has been trying to eat her hair for a considerable portion of the time it has been there, and one of the ones on her legs is nibbling at her toes, which is starting to become unbearable. However, she cannot get up, and squirms to no avail under the weight. Unable to get free, she simply endures.

Eventually, after what seem to be a small eternity, she hears voices.

"See! I told you that Kiri would help, and look, she found them all on her own! Iti, you gotta apologise to my best friend for calling her a liar!"

Fighting the urge to beat her head against the ground - an impossibility anyway, given the weight of the rabbit pressing her face into the turf - Kiri attempts a muffled plea for help. The volume is pathetic even to her ears, and she isn't sure the Ree even notice it.

"Hmm. Looks like these two got tased," observes Hatchi. "Not bad. An' a double takedown of these other two. I'm impressed, that's actually pretty good."

Kiri hears the frown in Zyuu's voice. "Hn. 'Portant thing for the next model. Insulated armour. Gotta remember that."

There is a smirk clearly evident in Hatchi's smug reply, "Kei'll say 'I told you so', you know?"

A pout. "Bah. Also, you're trollin' again."

Suddenly, the weight on Kiri's shoulders and neck decreases to nothing. She looks up to find pale blue hair, red eyes studying her. Holding the giant rabbit effortlessly in one hand by the scruff of it's neck, Iti nods to her. "They'll be at this a while," she observes quietly. "They do it a lot. Sore aural bickering, or something." She helps Kiri out from under the rest and glances at her sisters. "You should probably go home. Thanks for the help."

Wordlessly, Kiri nods and turns to leave. Apparently, though, Hatchi is less absorbed in her argument with Zyuu than she appears to be, because she catches up within a few metres.

"Heeee~y. Just wanted to say, you did pretty well today. Well, 'cept for the slacking bit at the start, an' falling behind. But I'll let you off on them since you did find the rabbits." She grins cheerfully. "You're doing well as a sidekick! Pretty soon, we'll be able to move onto the _advanced_ stuff! Just don't go overstraining yourself, kay? You're better than most people, but you're still sorta pathetic, an' it would be all kinds of annoying an' stuff if you got badly hurt or somethin'." A pause, as the pale girl mulls things over. "Kay, that's about it! Tell Aunty Hyouka hi for me when you get back home!"

With that, she turns and bounces off, back towards her sisters, who are each somehow carrying three rabbits apiece. Kiri isn't sure whether to feel dread at the prospect of "advanced stuff", worry over why Hatchi would be calling her mother "Aunty" or pride and happiness over being praised.

After a moment's thought, she shrugs. The past week or so... Hatchi has been _friendly_, and almost vulnerable, in their talks through the mirror. It's disconcerting. Almost scary. But this? This is quintessential Hatchi.

A small smile creeps onto Kiri's face at that, as she heads back in the approximate direction of home. Everything is back to normal. She's not entirely sure _why_ that makes her feel better... but it does, and perhaps that's all that matters.


	5. Chapter 5

**33.**

"Shakespeare!" the teacher announces. She is slender, but energetic, with a repressed vitality and love of the stage that makes it easy to see why she teaches drama. "The Bard himself. It will be good for you all to experience a little culture. Thus, we are going to be performing Ma- the Scottish Play."

Shiro sticks his hand up, "I thought Shakespeare was English?" he says, confused. "Are you telling me he was Scottish instead?"

"... no, the Scottish Play is one of the plays he wrote. It's set in Scotland."

"Weird," muses Kensuke, "I don't remember any of his plays called that..."

"No," explains the teacher patiently, "it's not the _name_ of the play, it's just what it's called."

"... that sounds wierd. And stupid," another boy comments.

"Oh oh oh! Is that the one where they both fall in love and it's _so_ filled with _ROMANCE_ and stuff?" Rei asks.

"You're probably thinking of Romeo and Juliet," the teacher says. "No, that's a different one."

"Pity, 'cause, really, I gotta ask people why they'd do someone as silly as fallin' in love from someone with a completely different family-thing if they're not gonna plan properly and so end up with either of them dying. Or both."

Resting her head in her hands, Sasoriko observes the flustered attempts of the teacher to explain the situation with bored distaste. "Honestly," she sighs, "why did I have to get stuck in the stupid class? I'm half-tempted to explain it myself."

"Nah, where would the fun in that be?" Emi grins. "Let her sort it out. An' anyway, the longer it takes her, the less actual work we gotta do, right?"

"No, Emi." Kiri sends a mildly disapproving look at her to her short-haired friend, which utterly fails to have any effect whatsoever. "Besides, she might keep us behind longer, to make up for it." This is rather more effective, and Emi blanches.

"Fine. Okay, Saso-chan, fire away."

Levelling a glare at Emi for the nickname, Sasoriko speaks up, caustic tones cutting clearly across the hubbub that the classroom has descended into. "You mean Macbeth, right? I read that it's considered unlucky to refer to it by name _on stage_."

The teacher catches the emphasis on the last two words and nods with a hint of gratefulness. "Yes, well... I expect we can probably dispense with the custom while discussing it, then." She shifts uncomfortably, unsettled by the rapid loss of control over the class of thirteen year olds.

She clears her throat. "I thought we'd take a slightly different approach to the role of MacDuff," she announces, the dog-eared script in her hands. "Namely, I really think we should have a girl play the part. For one, it shows a revocation of the dominant patriarchy which is natural to the setting, wherein the women were reduced to brood-mares, and... and, I should add, the one woman with agency, with protagonism... she's cast as the _villain_, no less! Is that fair! No, it's not fair!"

Most of the class has already tuned out.

"And, on less ideological notes," she adds, "there's a lack of female roles, and there's nothing about him which means that he has to be male... well, I mean, his wife and children are killed, but that can be a husband just as easily, and indeed it becomes more poignant, because it's a mother out for revenge for her murdered children! Now, MacDuff needs to be strong, and have a commanding stage presence, needs to be a rival and opponent to Macbeth in every way, and considering his background, at the time it was believed that someone like that would have a touch of the strange about them."

Slowly, inevitably, the teacher's attention - and indeed most of the class's - shifts towards Rei, who is trying to balance a pencil on her upper lip.

"Huh?" Noticing the attention, Rei looks up and glances around.

"Miss Ayanami? Would you like to play Macduff?" the teacher asks, patiently. "It's one of the fairly major roles, and indeed that means that you'd get to kill Macbeth. Macduff is not a man of woman born, so he... or in this case, you... gets around the prophecy of the witches."

Rei... freezes. It's slight, but Kiri knows her... and Hatchi as well... well enough to notice it. Her eyes narrow, the corners of the mouth turn down, and her teeth are no longer exposed in a _happy_ way. And then she recovers. "But I'm not a boy," she says, with a grin that looks a little stiff.

"Yes, I know that. I did explain it," the teacher says, patiently. "That's one of the things. It means that when you go 'but I am no man of woman born', it's a moment of levity, because you're a girl."

"Oh. 'Kay. Sure, then," Rei remarks.

Kiri is about to ask if Sasoriko saw that, but she notices that the dark-haired girl is intently reading through her photocopy of the script, flipping over pages at a slightly worrying speed.

"Then there's Lady Macbeth. A strong female character, intense and with a major role in the story. Certainly a good choice for anyone enthusiastic about this!"

Silence, broken only by Chichi, "But... she's a creepy murderer who's crazy, though." She perks up. "Hey, I know! Yochi, you can be the creepy psycho!"

Sasoriko glares back at her, but one look at the teacher is enough to see her enthusiasm for the idea. Now that the woman has a candidate, Sasoriko can see the chances of her relinquishing the role dwindling rapidly. "Oh joy," she mutters, scowling. On the other hand... it might impress her parents. And they might give her time off music practice to rehearse. With a mental shrug, she concedes and nods her agreement.

"Okay then," says the teacher, now on a role, "how about Macbeth? Ah, Suzuhara! You'd be well suited for this role, I think. The titular character, a torn figure at the centre of a web of betrayal and lies. Very strong role, a lot of charisma required." Grinning cockily at the implicit praise, Toji agrees.

Sasoriko distinctly feels the temperature beside her drop by several degrees. To her right, Kiri _seethes_. But politely.

Sasoriko considers looking round, but can _feel_ the eyes on her. 'Stay calm,' she tells herself, 'she can't do anything to you in public. She'll wait until you're alone. In her territory. Vulnerable. Like... the homework session at her house we have planned for tonight. Oh crap. Cancel. Yes, I can cancel. Say that I have extra music practice, or a family... thing. Yes.'

The atmosphere throughout the rest of the lesson is still rather tenser than she is comfortable with, though.

* * *

**34.**

"... and she has Lady Macbeth! She g-gets to b-be _married_ t-to Suzuhara, and- and I'm just a stupid minor c-character c-called Siward with eleven lines in the whole p-play! I mean... I g-get to act next to Rei, b-but... still! It's not fair!"

Hatchi purses her lips, leaning back in a virtual hammock with her arms behind her head. "Well then," she says as if it is obvious, "why don't'cha just challenge her for the role?"

"I- I c-can't do that!" Kiri exclaims in horror. Though... the idea of challenging Sasoriko to a fight for the role... is strangely appealing. She imagines it for a moment, savouring the inevitable conclusion of getting to play opposite Toji after Sasoriko gives up in fear of her, and... and...

"No! That w-would b-be b-b-bad!"

Hatchi shrugs idly, "Eh. Your choice, I guess. S'only a role, though, right? Not super-mega important or stuff. An' just rehearsing will give you more time around him, if you like him so much." She seems a little sulky at this last part.

Kiri smiles slightly, and delicately nudges the conversation into safer waters, "I g-guess you're right. What have you been d-doing? Did you manage to finish the new simulation yet?"

Hatchi visibly brightens at the new topic, leaning forwards enthusiastically, "Uh huh! It's awesome! Algorithms for impact modelling that are tonnes more efficient, so I can stress-test stuff _way_ better! The upgrades to the physics engine were _totally_ worth tradin' my spot with Little Mommy this week with Kei."

A ping sounds next to her, and Hatchi glances sideways at an alert. "Oh, huh. Yeah, forgot about that. You remember the thing with the rabbits, right? Few months back?"

"... um... sort of." hedges Kiri warily. That night had _not_ been at all fun, and she has no desire to be dragged into a repeat of the experience.

"Yeah, well. Basically, Iti wanted to thank you or something, so she made you a sorta flower headband thingy. Rei'll give it to you tomorrow, if she remembers. Oh, an'... uh... just wanna say... it's from Iti. So, you know, if it starts growing into stuff..." She pauses, considering the likely options Kiri will be capable of. "... probably tell me or Rei."

"Um... okay?" Kiri ventures, by now thoroughly unnerved.

Hatchi nods thoughtfully, "Yeah, tell me or Rei. You probably won't be able to fight it on your own."

Slumping at the offhand disparagement, Kiri nods glumly.

"But hey," Hatchi interjects cheerfully, "thing you might wanna know. Those recipes you wanted me to put in? They're finished, an' the algorithm's come up with more for you to look over!"

"Ah!" Kiri smiles, bad mood dissipating. She had initially been surprised when Hatchi had asked her to look over some experimental recipes generated on her computer, but some of them had actually turned out to be fairly palatable, and a few were downright moreish. "That's g-good! Uh... you checked them for things I c-can actually get, right? Only saffron is sort of hard t-to find, especially in those quantities..."

"Yeah yeah, I weighted them and checked through them all myself, so they're all good. I'll read 'em out, yeah?"

"Okay!" Kiri hastily finds a pencil, paper and a beanbag and sits in front of the mirror. "Okay, I'm ready!"

"Kiri!" her mother's voice cuts in from downstairs, "you have a letter!"

"Uh..." Kiri hesitates, looking from the door, to Hatchi's smiling face, and back again, "... um... wait there just a minute, p-please?" Not waiting for an answer, she hastily scrambles up and out of the room.

Hatchi blinks once or twice, mildly nonplussed, but shrugs off the unusual haste. She looks around Kiri's room with mild interest, bouncing absently on her seat. A thundering sound comes from outside the virtual room she is sitting in, and she glances backwards to see the tail end of what looks like a Tyrannosaurus passing by. A few seconds later, Zyuu appears in hot pursuit, waving an oversized butterfly net. Hatchi quirks an eyebrow and gives momentary thought to joining the chase, but eventually shrugs and turns back to the screen. It occurs to her that Kiri is taking a rather long time.

In the room on the other side of the floating window, the door opens. Kiri trudges through, and it is immediately obvious even to Hatchi that something has changed drastically in the short time since she left the room. Her shoulders are slumped, her head bowed, her stance depressed and morose. In one hand, she holds a card - generic and plain, with three blocks of colour on the front.

"Uh... Kiri?" Hatchi asks, unsettled by the sudden change, "You okay?"

No answer. A flick of a wrist sends the card spinning onto the bed, and Kiri half-turns toward the window, as if only just remembering it. Her eyes are shadowed by her fringe, but Hatchi can make out faint tear-tracks on her cheeks.

"Kiri? C'mon, Kiri, say something!" Hatchi is worried now, something is wrong. Her sidekick is upset about something, and it's her job to look after her sidekick, and stuff. She changes tack, aiming to cheer the mousy girl up. "Hey, I still got the recipes! You were gonna go through them, right? Look, I'll read out the first one-"

Stepping forward, Kiri jerks the newly installed curtain across the window. Stunned, Hatchi is left staring at an opaque wall of heavy fabric. A cough of static signals the speakers in Kiri's room being turned off.

For almost thirty seconds, Hatchi sits still in sheer disbelief. Then reality kicks back in and she scrambles into action. If her sidekick won't tell her what's wrong face to face, then... she calls up a virtual phone and orders the MAGI to dial a number she knows off by heart. The line dials once, twice, thrice...

... after eighteen rings without Kiri picking up, Hatchi gives up and terminates the call. Her mind whirs for a moment as her breathing hitches. No, she tells herself. Stay calm. Something is wrong with Kiri. Okay, fine. All Hatchi needs to do is find the source of what's wrong, beat it up, make it right again and then everything can go back to normal. Like it should be. So, if _Kiri_ won't tell her what's wrong...

This time, the phone picks up on the third ring. "Hello," a familiar voice says, "Harasami residence, Hyouka speaking. Who is this?"

"It's Hatchi," says the blunette, and cuts off the start of Hyouka's next sentence before she can speak, "I'm not asking to talk to Kiri, I wanted to know why she just came up to her room all sad an' stuff an' turned her window off an'... an'... she had a card, right? Was that it? Was someone mean to her in the card? Or... or was the postman all evil an' stuff, or... um..."

"Hatchi!" Hyouka interrupts the flow of questions, "Kiri... is a little upset, but it's nothing you need to be worried about. I'm sure she'll be fine in a few days, so just... hang on until then, okay? It might be better if you let her work through this by herself."

"But-" Hatchi starts, but Hyouka hangs up before she can protest or ask again. For the second time in as many minutes, she rocks backwards, stunned. Something... something is _wrong_, something she needs to fix, and...

... and yet she can't. She doesn't know what to attack, what to beat up. It even seems a little bit like Kiri doesn't even _want_ Hatchi to fix things.

"But... what am I supposed to _do?_" she asks to nobody in particular.

Her only reply is silence.

* * *

**35.**

"A-and so, G-god b-be with him! Here c-c-comes newer c-comfort," Kiri finishes, stumbling over the words and trying not to fidget. Moments later, she gratefully secedes from the stage as the play comes to a close. She wanders over to Hikari, who is relaxing in a chair and watching the performance with thinly veiled boredom. Wordlessly, the mousy girl sits next to her.

"Alright everybody," calls the teacher, painfully earnest and apparently under the impression that more than half the class is listening to her, "that was _very good!_ Now, practice makes perfect, so one more time from the top!"

Hikari and Kiri stay where they are, neither playing roles that come on until late in the play. As they watch the mad scramble, Hikari blows out a slow sigh. "So," she says, "why so nervous? It's not as if there's anyone watching at the moment."

"I just... I'm not c-comfortable with it." Kiri resists the urge to fidget and forces herself to stay still and quiet as Sasoriko passes, arguing with the teacher.

"It's... degrading, and unfair, the way that she has to be _inept_ at being evil, and feel _guilt_ of all things, when her husband doesn't!" the pale girl is saying, "It's as if they're subtly suggesting that women are all meek, subservient little creatures who are incapable of doing wrong! And the ones that go beyond that are all plagued by doubt and guilt, while the men can do whatever they want!"

"I know, I know," agrees the teacher, "But, sadly that's the way that it's written, and changing the script isn't a possibility. I'm sure you'll play it wonderfully, though."

Hikari raises an eyebrow as their small, dark haired classmate nods in acknowledgement and meanders backstage to prepare for the third run-through of the play. "Direct, isn't she?"

Kiri twitches a smile and nods slightly before returning to pensive brooding. The freckled girl frowns, puzzled at the drastic change in Kiri's usual composure. She glances at Sasoriko and Emi, but neither appears to be aware of the depressed mood - or if they are, they're tactfully ignoring it. Hikari considers the latter possibility for all of three seconds before remembering that 'tactful' has never been a word that could realistically be applied to either Emi Akaho or Sasoriko Yochi, much less both at the same time.

Fine then. It looks like it's up to her to figure out what has Kiri so depressed. First, though, Hikari needs a way to snap her mousy friend out of her brooding...

"You know," she ventures, "my sister's started this gaming thing. It's... kind of fun. Sort of... like a story, only with you as the main characters, and you say what you do, and the storyteller says what happens, and stuff. I'm thinking of setting up a game of my own, but I need players. Do you want to take part?"

Paying attention properly for the first time since Hikari sat down next to her, Kiri blinks at her. "Um..." she says, "it sounds... wait, why are you asking me?"

"Well, we've known each other ages," replies Hikari, "so that should make it easier for me to run the story with you in it, since I know how you think. And... you seem a bit down. I thought this might cheer you up."

Kiri considers, eventually settling her decision with a shrug. "Sure, I suppose. D-do you want me t-to ask Sasoriko and Emi if they want to c-come along as well?"

"Sure! The more the merrier, after all. Well... uh... not _too_ many, since it's my first game. But yeah, three or four should be fine."

Kiri nods, eyes drifting back to the stage where Macbeth is confronting the witches. Emi, she notices, is eying whatever is in the cauldron dubiously and gingerly prodding the bottom with the stirring ladle. A thought occurs to her, and she voices it absently, "D-do you mind if I ask Hatchi as well? It would make things a b-bit more d-difficult, and... um... w-we'd have to p-play in my room, b-but... I think it would be g-good for her to... well, not g-get out a bit, b-because she would be p-p-playing through the mirror, but... um..."

She chances a glance at Hikari, expecting a pale denial of letting one of Rei's sisters into the game, but the freckled girl is nodding thoughtfully. "Hmm... sure, why not? She seemed fairly... uh..." Hikari glances at Rei quickly and appears to search for a word, "... well, she didn't do anything _unusual_, and she seemed nice. And I know I would go crazy if I had to stay inside all the time." She shivers faintly before offering Kiri a smile. "Yeah, go on then. But you have to bake snacks for us!"

Kiri giggles, bad mood evaporating momentarily, "Alright, alright. Whatever you say." Her gaze drifts inexorably back to the stage again, watching the juvenile Macbeth stumble through his lines with the occasional prompt from the sidelines. A small sigh escapes, and she again laments the unfairness of the universe.

Hikari breaks off from trying to think of a tactful way to broach the subject of what's bothering her friend at the sound of the sigh and follows her line of sight. Tracing it to Toji, she blinks and looks back at Kiri, who is oblivious to her staring, and then back at Toji again, just to make sure. Coming to the inescapable conclusion, she sputters incoherently.

"But- you- for the- _what?_" Kiri's head snaps around to focus on her, guilt written across her face. "I-" she starts, but Hikari cuts her off. "_Suzuhara?_ Seriously? Of all the- why him? He's not exactly prime material." She glances at the athletic boy again speculatively, assessing his looks, "... though... I guess he _is_ kind of cute..."

"I- I- I-" Kiri stutters, face crimson, hands half raised as if to ward off the verbal assault. Hikari blinks, and takes pity on her, "Oh, don't worry. I won't tell anyone." She eyes the mortified girl speculatively, and decides that it is probably best to give her some space. On the plus side, she reasons, at least Kiri is no longer thinking about whatever had her so depressed when Hikari first sat down.

Retreating diplomatically, the class rep fails to notice a blue head of hair heading over towards Kiri from the other side of the hall. The mousy girl is thus caught somewhat unawares when two crimson eyes set in a pale face drop in front of her own. The small shriek she lets out is, in her opinion, entirely defensible under these circumstances.

"Heee~ey," chirps Rei, "Listen. Got something I need to talk to you about. Very important, so you gotta come somewhere secret to hear."

"... ... ..." Kiri looks around. There is nobody within at least a dozen metres in any direction, and most of the people in sight are busy in their own conversations and paying no attention to anything going on in the rest of the hall. Rei follows her gaze and seems to take her unspoken point.

"... okay," she relents, "you remember the land in Mongolia I got you for your birthday?" Kiri goes very still and suddenly regrets not taking Rei up on her offer of going somewhere private to talk. Discretely, she checks that Emi and Sasoriko are still busy, and out of hearing range. She isn't entirely sure what her dark-haired friend's reaction to learning that she owns a plot of land in Mongolia would be, but she is absolutely certain that the inevitable theories are not ones she wants to deal with. Assured that both friends are engrossed in their own activities - Emi still acting and Sasoriko debating passionately with the teacher - she turns back to Rei and nods jerkily.

"Uh huh. Cause, right... well, there might be... um... stuff, coming. And stuff. And the stuff might be a _teeny_ bit dangerous, maybe-"

"Um... Hatchi already warned me about this," Kiri interjects, "Sort of. She was a b-bit vague, but the g-gist was there."

"Oh," Rei blinks. "Huh. Should probably talk to her 'bout that. Not sure she was allowed to. But yeah, basically, we have sensors and stuff, to detect... stuff. And we don't ree~eally have enough of them - well, we technically _do_, but more is always better cause it gives more redundancy 'gainst damage and helps with triangulation. Of stuff."

"Um..."

"So Little Mommy was complaining 'bout that, and I reminded her 'bout your present, and basically NERV is offering you a subsidy if you let them put a sensor array on your land, so you'd get pocket money and totally be helping save the world, which would be awesome!"

Rei grins happily at Kiri, who is struggling to process the blue-haired girl's rambling speech. After a moment, she tentatively raises a hand halfway, "So... um... NERV... have a network of sensors... and they want to p-put one on my land in Mongolia?"

"Uh huh!"

"And... they'll p-pay me to p-put it there?"

"Yup!"

"... and... there's no d-downside?"

"Nope!"

"Are you _sure?_"

"Totally!"

The mousy girl considers this information. On the one hand, years of experience scream at her not to jump into anything offered by Rei before checking _very carefully_ to see what the catch is. On the other hand, Rei is waiting, and looks eager and cheerful. And she did _promise_ that this was a genuine offer. And-

'_Alright,_' her mother's voice echoes in the faint tones of memory. '_If you need me, I'll be downstairs working on our finances. Your father was a little late on the payment this month, so we may have to be a little stingy for the next week or so._'

"How-" Kiri starts falteringly, staring fixedly at the floor and biting her lip, "how much w-would the subsidy b-be?"

"Um..." Rei frowns, "not sure. Sort of a lot, though. Way more than you'd get from pocket money. C'mon, it'll be really good!"

Kiri thinks about her mother's expression, so _tired_ some nights as she goes up to bed. About the tense, nervous air she gets whenever a support payment is late. About how, despite having to manage a tight budget and work long hours, she always makes time for her daughter.

"Okay," she says in a small voice. "Okay. Um... t-tell... whoever... that... yes. I agree."

"Cool!" sings Rei, and bounces away with a mad grin towards the stage, making a beeline for the props chest. A rather expensive-sounding clatter a few seconds later announces her arrival, but Kiri pays no attention.

Instead, her eyes bore a hole in the floor as she tries in vain to convince herself that she hasn't just made a very large mistake.

* * *

**36.**

"Mraa!"

Sasoriko glares at the boisterous calico kitten which has interrupted her. "You're awfully loud for such a small beast," she informs it through narrowed eyes.

Kiri giggles. Partly at the utter seriousness that her friend seems to be treating this with, but mostly because the sentence could also be used with startling accuracy to describe Sasoriko herself. She pets the black and white female in her lap, drawing contented purring from the tiny creature. Oly is still just about small enough to sit curled up in Kiri's cupped hands, and her heartbeat is a rapid thrum under the warm fur. The kittens are a recent addition to the bakery her martial arts teacher runs during the day, and one she has quickly found she enjoys. Tickling Oly under her chin, she looks around the small, cosy shop, cream walls lined with pictures and scenes from France, along with the occasional shelf of souvenirs.

"Anyway," continues Sasoriko irritably, "as I was saying, they're actually fairly happy. I have the leading female role, so... yeah. They've even let up on music lessons to let me rehearse more. I swear; it's like the end of a jail sentence." She frowns, "Unfortunately, it's a temporary one. Hmm. I wonder if it's worth looking into joining the drama club? I mean, if it worked once- ow!"

She flinches visibly and glares down at the small feline latched onto her leg. "Ow, ow! Ah- get it off! Ow!" Jerking it violently, she forces Kal to let go in order to avoid being sent flying. The kitten emits a low rumble disproportionate to its size and leaps at the chair leg, clambering up it and settling in the pale girl's lap. Circling once, oblivious to Sasoriko's winces at the uncomfortable feeling of small paws treading around her lap with claws partially extended to provide traction, he gives an approving mewl and butts his head against her hand, demanding attention.

Mystified, Sasoriko looks at Kiri for guidance. The other girl's lips are twitching uncontrollably, and she has to bite back a gentle giggle at the sight. "He wants you to stroke him," she explains. "T-try it. It's not so b-bad."

"Hmph. I'm not a cat person, in general," replies Sasoriko haughtily. Nevertheless, she gingerly rubs the feline head, Kal's eyes closing in bliss as she strokes him, pushing his head against the slender fingers. "Cats," she says flatly, with an exhalation of disapproval. "You know, they're a lot like you, Kiri. They look innocent at first, but then they... pounce." She glares down at the little beast again. He rather ruins her point by mewling happily again and, with what she is sure is a cattish grin, twisting around to lick her hand. A happy purr announces that he considers Sasoriko worthy of the feline stamp of approval.

The girl in question looks rather less than overjoyed at this.

"I'm glad your p-parents are happy, then," says Kiri, picking up the conversation once more with the faintest trace of a smile at Sasoriko's situation. The smile slips away and her eyes lose focus slightly, staring off into the distance as she has been doing frequently for the past week or so. Sasoriko watches with narrowed eyes as Kiri shakes herself slightly and snaps out of it. "Mama is proud, of course, and she's not t-taking late nights anymore, so that's g-good. She's going to come to the first night, as well." Kiri pauses, considering this. "Um... so I hope it goes well."

"Hope what goes well?" cuts in Emi, setting down a tray of drinks and pastries before throwing herself into the remaining seat. "Your latest plan for world domination?" She throws a grin at Sasoriko as she says it.

"Emi!" protests Kiri, "I don't... I'm not..."

"Heh. Lighten up, Kiri, I was only teasing." Leaning back and stretching, Emi notices the kittens occupying her friends' laps and raises an eyebrow. "I see the furballs are still here. Cute. Hey, you know who they remind me of?"

"Dare I ask?" Sasoriko sighs.

"Oh, don't be like that, Saso-chan. They're like Kiri! All cute and shy and cuddly!" A faint, stifled snort from Sasoriko draws her attention, but the pale girl has a poker face on by the time Emi looks round, which quickly switches to a glare as the rest of the girl's comment registers.

"My name is Sasoriko. Not Saso. And please use the -san ending when talking to me; I don't feel that close to you."

"Aww, Saso-chan. I know you do care really. Deep down." She pauses for a second in consideration. "Deep, _deep_ down." A glare from Sasoriko is her only answer. "Anyway, I got us all muffins, so- huh. Um... Kiri?"

"Hmm?" Kiri lowers her cup of tea, looking up inquisitively. "What is it?"

"Uh... I'm not _certain_, but... I think that kitten is trying to murder your schoolbag."

* * *

Backing away slightly, Asana takes stock of her situation. Her attack on the blocky-cow-skin-prey-thing had got off to a bad start when she'd headbutted it and it had deviously turned out to be full of hard things. However, after reeling for a moment, she had leapt into action, backing it up against the chair leg and pinning it with her mighty front paws. This left it helpless against her as she sunk her fangs into its throat, revelling in its weak, pathetic struggles as the end drew near.

Or it would have done, had she been able to locate its throat. Or possessed front teeth to bite it with.

Nevertheless, the blocky-cow-skin-prey-thing bore grievous wounds in various neck-like areas from her gnawing, and its side was lacerated from where she had kicked at it with her back legs, claws opening rents in its tough hide. It had put up a brave fight, retaliating with devastating salvos of not-tasting-very-nice and being-full-of-hard-things-with-uncomfortable-corners, but any moment now it would show weakness and she would pounce once more to finish it off. Warily, she stares her foe down, daring it to attack her or attempt to flee. She is the huntress here. This is _her_ realm. The stupid creature had never stood a chance.

"Ahhh! My schoolbag!" Abruptly, the chair she has her victim pinned against shifts back and one of the food-givers reaches down to grab the blocky-cow-skin-prey-thing. Asana hisses and swipes a claw at the food-giver's hand. That's _her_ prey! If the food-giver wants one, she should go kill her own!

"Ow! Bad kitten, bad! Stop that!" Asana dances back from the retaliatory swipe, hissing again. She isn't going to let anything steal her kill, even if it is someone who gave her food sometimes. Why can't the human go back to being distracted by Oly and leave her to finish off her weakened quarry?

Realising that the human's attention has been diverted from her, Asana starts to creep closer, stalking the wounded object in her grasp.

"My schoolbag!" moans the girl to the other humans, "she's d-destroyed it! Look, the strap's almost b-bitten through! And she's p-put half a dozen holes in the side! All my books will fall out!"

Asana edges closer still, tail lashing behind her, readying herself to pounce. Her eyes are fixed on the dangling strap attached to her goal, and she gathers herself to lunge for a final blow...

And all the hairs along her spine stand on end. Involuntarily, she lets out a low yowl of borderline panic, which is echoed by the other two kittens nearby. Oly's nerve breaks at the sixth sense and she bolts, a black-and-white streak of terrified feline aimed for the stairs. Eyes wide, Asana casts around for the source of the unnameable, unidentified terror hanging thick in the air along with the faint smell of blood and plant matter. She identifies it a second after Kal, and the calico male leaps from the dark-haired human's lap to attack the threat.

Watching from the corner, with all the hair on her body standing on end in fear, Asana can only watch and mewl quietly as her companion bravely faces down the terrifying creature, knowing that he can't possibly win, in a vain attempt to defend her and Oly.

* * *

"..." Iti says, looking down at the small calico kitten which is attacking her shoe. Gently, she nudges it away with a foot and watches as it hisses at her several times before turning tail and bolting. She blinks in mild bemusement.

"... that was strange," she says. Emi stifles a giggle, and the blue-haired girl turns back to the trio. "Harasami-san," she nods in greeting.

Kiri nods back warily. "... Iti, yes? It's g-good to see you." She ignores Emi's whispered "how the hell does she tell them apart like that?" to Sasoriko. Dropping the damaged schoolbag as a lost cause, her eyes narrow slightly. "Hatchi didn't send you, d-did she? I've told her to stop pushing, I don't want to-"

"Not about that, no," interrupts Iti, and Kiri relaxes slightly. So, imperceptibly, does Sasoriko. "Rei forgot your present. I'm delivering it."

The mousy girl blinks in surprise. "Uh... I... um... you mean for the rabbits? B-but that was... months ago. Wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Had to get the formula right, and make sure there were no advent affects. Better a late present than one that doesn't work, right?" Unwrapping several layers of tissue paper from the object she is holding, Iti produces a headband and offers it to Kiri. Delicate-looking flowers in shades of yellow, pink and pastel blue line the top to form a living display of colour and texture. All three girls eyes widen at the sight.

"It- it's... it's gorgeous!" gasps Kiri. "I can't- this is-" Carefully, she reaches out to accept the gift, and breathes out in wonder as she touches the petals. "They're not fake, they're... they're still alive? How?"

Iti looks faintly offended. "Course they're not fake. Or dead. I bred them for this. The headband is designed to funnel water and nutrients to them. You just have to leave the ends in a glass of water and plant food three times a week. They'll be resistant to damage, too." She pauses to think for a moment before adding "Also, it'll keep your hair back."

Reverently, Kiri lifts the headband to her forehead, sliding it on and wrinkling her brow a few times to get used to it. "Emi," she requests, "do you have a mirror on you?" The item is produced and proffered, and Kiri is quickly absorbed in admiring how it looks on her.

Emi slides over to Sasoriko, whispering surreptitiously while Kiri is distracted. "Sooo... odds that they're brain-eating parasite flowers?"

"None."

Emi jerks in surprise at Iti's interjection. "... oh. I thought you'd... never mind."

The blue-haired girl smiles slightly, watching Kiri admire how the flowers frame her hair and compliment her face. "I have good hearing," she replies.

"Huh. Cool." Emi cocks her head in interest. "You know, I don't think I really know much about Rei's sisters, apart from Hatchi. Where-"

"Emi?" Sasoriko cuts in. "One thing, before you two start talking?"

"Uh... hang on a tick," Emi says to her prospective new friend, "yeah, Saso-chan?"

Sasoriko suppresses the brief flicker of irritation at the pet-name and quietly pulls Emi to one side. "Listen. Kiri's been... off, for the past week. Zoning out, moping, generally depressed, stuttering more. Hatchi keeps calling me every night to find out about what she's doing - I think either Kiri or her mother told her to stop pestering Kiri herself to find out what's going on, but she's going frantic and keeps asking for updates on the situation. She said something about Kiri getting a card, and then cutting off all contact." She pauses thoughtfully, "It's... actually the closest I've ever seen her to scared."

Emi nods, frowning. "Yeah... she has been a bit down lately. I thought it was just the play, and not getting the... uh..." she bites her lip, glancing at Sasoriko. "Anyway, yeah. I'm guessing you want me to find out what's going on? Sure! I'd be happy to help you out, Saso-chan!"

Sasoriko nods gratefully. "Okay, thank you. Just... try to be subtle. And don't get her angry." Her gaze drifts over to Iti, waiting patiently nearby. "Three now... I wonder what she-" abruptly remembering how good the girl's hearing is, she cuts off that train of thought. "Anyway, yes. Avoid her temper, but try to find out what's bothering her. And please, do it _soon_. My parents are... concerned that I appear to have the acquaintance of two Ayanamis. Apparently, my mother had some kind of safety briefing about them which... well, I'm fairly sure that she was joking about that. Probably. But I'd still rather the nightly phone calls from Hatchi stopped."

Emi nods reassuringly. "Sure, sure. I won't let you down, Saso-chan! And... heh, I really don't need reminding about her temper." Both girls wince slightly at the memories associated with their usually meek friend losing her patience. Moving back over to Iti, she resumes her conversation. "So, how many of you are there, anyway? I have a little sister, but I don't really see her much, and... oh, oh, and what kind of music do you like? Do you all have the same tastes and stuff 'cause you're twins- well, okay, not twins, but... quadruplets, or septuplets, or whatever? Or are you all really different? And..."

Leaning back, Sasoriko allows Emi's babbling to wash over her, noting Iti listening quietly and occasionally interjecting with a comment or answer. A smile traces her lips. Emi might be annoying sometimes, but it's good that she seems to be making another friend. Turning her attention to Kiri, she observes her childhood friend, engrossed in examining her new headband - which even Sasoriko can admit is a work of art. From the depth of her intensity, Sasoriko deems it unlikely that Kiri will be available to talk to for some time.

No matter. They are, after all, at a cafe, and her mug of coffee is still untouched. Savouring the aroma, Sasoriko takes a long sip and a bite of muffin.

Ahh. Bliss.

* * *

**37.**

"Heh," chuckles Emi nervously at Kiri's expression. "Yeah... uh... sorry about the mess. We've mostly finished unpacking all the boxes and stuff, but we've still got a bit of clutter left over."

Kiri's eyes sweep over the heaps of miscellaneous items piled haphazardly on the floor, the jackets, socks and other items of clothing tossed carelessly over furniture and the occasional empty glass or plate left lying abandoned on a shelf or atop a pile of DVD cases. Despite herself, a slight whimper of horrified dismay escapes her.

"H-h-how c-can you _live_ like this?" she stutters in morbid disbelief.

"Eh," replies Emi. "I'll agree it's a little small - nowhere near as big as your house. But it's just me and my dad, so there's usually enough space for us both to feel comfortable."

"N-no, I mean..." words fail Kiri as she looks around the main room of the small apartment. It looks like a bomb has hit it. In fact, Kiri is prepared to wager that a bomb hitting it might actually improve matters.

Unprompted, some of the advice that Hatchi has given her on Molotov Cocktails, their construction and their usage comes to mind, before she hurriedly stamps it out. Taking a deep breath, she turns to Emi, who pales slightly and starts to back away. Kiri cuts her off before she takes more than a few steps.

"You are going to introduce me to your father," says the mousy girl in the tone of razor-edged steel that so rarely glints from behind the comfortable, warm softness she usually presents to the world. "And then you are going to show me where the cleaning supplies are, and we are going to make this apartment _liveable_, because currently it is not fit for human habitation." She glares, and her tone drops to one of liquid nitrogen, "_Do you understand?_"

Emi nods frantically and she vanishes deeper into the apartment, as much to get away from her suddenly terrifying friend as to retrieve her father from wherever he is sequestered.

Kiri sags as Emi leaves, feeling faintly embarrassed at her aggression. But... the _state_ of this place... there is no way she can consent to leaving one of her best friends living in this... this... this _pigsty_. Her eyes flick upwards to the greying plaster on the ceiling and the prominent cracks, and for just a moment she considers what would happen if she asked Hatchi for help in making this place more liveable. A very short moment, before a voice which sounds a bit like Sasoriko points out that such a thing would be _unutterably_ stupid and likely result in the entire apartment being destroyed. At best.

"Well then," she mutters to herself, "where to start?" Surveying the room, it isn't an easy question to answer. The range and breadth of detritus is horrifyingly extensive, and there seems to be no convenient point to start at and work outward from. Kiri tables the issue momentarily and edges toward the nearest inner door, feeling vaguely guilty for poking Emi's house without the short-haired girl there.

The guilt vanishes rapidly as she takes in what lies beyond the door. The contrast between the cosy, neatly sorted kitchen of her home and what she sees now is enough to bring a pained moan to her throat and further heaviness to her shoulders. Kiri is a resilient girl though, and after only a moment of depression she sighs and begins to take stock. The floor is clear. Mostly. That's good. The sink is almost invisible beneath the pile of crockery and cutlery that seems to have been aimlessly abandoned in and around it. The surfaces are littered with more, along with various boxes and ingredients. A pile of dirty laundry sits in front of the washing machine and an ironing board leans forlornly against the side of the fridge. Overall, however, it isn't quite as bad as she had expected.

Throwing a glance at the door Emi left through and seeing no evidence of her friend's return yet, Kiri busies herself sorting the kitchen out. She knows kitchens. She can do this. She hopes.

By the time Emi drags her father out of his office to meet her friend, Kiri has bundled the laundry into three separate piles by colour, one of which is churning away in the washing machine. The spoiled ingredients are in the bin and the fresh or unspoiled remainder are packed away in the cupboards. The dirty crockery and cutlery is all neatly piled on one surface next to the sink. And the mousy-haired girl herself is dragging the mop out from its resting place behind the door as the sink itself fills with hot, soapy water. She looks up as Emi warily pokes her head in and leans the mop against a counter.

She throws the girl a brief, wordless glare before turning her attention back to the sink.

"Um... Kiri? Uh... my... um... my Dad. Uh." Emi's eyes flicker over the kitchen as she stumbles over the words. It's never been this... tidy, before now. "He... um... Kiri?"

Kiri sighs, nods and turns the tap off. She hesitates before going back out into the living room, busying herself by putting a few of the more grime-encrusted bowls and plates in the water to soak. Internally, she is nervous again at the prospect of meeting Emi's fater. Poking around on her own and exploring his kitchen was bad enough, but she'd just come in and completely taken over! Started moving things around, and rearranging his belongings, and berating his daughter... she worries her lip uncomfortably. Maybe she should start with an apology... hopefully he wouldn't take her presumption in acting the wrong way? But she couldn't just have _left_ the house like this, not in this state.

An image of Hatchi drifts through her mind. She says nothing, arms folded. She doesn't need to. Kiri closes her eyes, nodding in resigned acceptance to the unspoken criticism. Mustering the scattered threads of her confidence, she takes a deep breath and goes to meet her host.

"Hello there! I apologise for taking so long, work never really lets up in this job," Emi's father greets her warmly. He is an average man in many ways - balding slightly, with a bland face and average build. If Kiri were to see his face on the street, she would take no notice of it.

The crutches, however, are decidedly unusual. Jaren Akaho's legs are weak, largely crippled from the explosion that put him in hospital for a year and lost him his position in the JSSDF. His crutches clatter as he picks his way across the cluttered room with the ease of long practice, leaning on one as he offers a hand for Kiri to shake. The motion snaps her out of her daze, and she bites back a pang of sympathy as she greets him politely and stutters through an explanation and apology for her assault on his kitchen. What must it be like to be walking one moment and crippled the next, with no chance of a complete recovery? She shivers as she imagines it, and feels her eyes tear up slightly.

"You're Kiri, yes?" Jaren says, failing to notice her emotional turmoil. "Emi's talked about you a lot. And... ah... please, by all means, don't feel you need to apologise for... um. Are you sure it's... uh... _okay_ for you to spend your time helping us out like this? I'm sure there are other things that, um, girls your age do?" He glances at his daughter, expression mystified and uncertain. "I wouldn't want to keep you from... uh... shopping, or... arcade games... um..."

After a short, awkward pause, Emi steps in to rescue him. "You know, I bet you've still got a bunch of work to do, so why don't Kiri and me let you go do it while we do this? She's fine with helping, I'll help her help, and you can give both of us 2000 yen as a reward to go shopping with tomorrow. Kay?"

Kiri's look at her is full of horror. "I... I can't t-take money!" she protests, mortified. "I was d-d-doing it to help!"

Jaren, however, grasps eagerly at the offered straw, "Yes, yes, of course," he nods. "And you can get something nice as a token of appreciation... I couldn't ask you to come and help with... uh... all of this, for free." Hurriedly, he backs away, carefully picking his way backwards over the untidy floor. "Well then, I'll be working in my office if you need anything. Have fun!" Turning awkwardly in the doorway, he beats a hasty retreat.

Kiri stares after him for a moment, mouth working silently, before snapping out of it. "O-Okay then," she manages. "Emi, you take the- um..." She hesitates, glancing between Emi and the sink full of dirty washing up. "Come over here," she orders, grabbing a plate "and look. See how I'm making sure it's completely clean? You c-can't be half-hearted about it, you have to do it right. And then rinse it off."

"Hey, c'mon Kiri! I know how to do the washing up!" Emi protests. Kiri looks at her in frank disbelief and glances at the pile of washing up on the counter. "... I just... sort of only wash dishes when I need them? So we wash up dishes when we're... making dinner... and... um..." She trails off, looking faintly embarrassed at her friend's horrified look.

"But that means... bacteria! A-and germs! Just... sitting there, mouldering for an entire day! That's disgusting... argh! How can you live like this?" She cuts off Emi's attempt at a reply by thrusting the scrubbing brush at her and determinedly snatches up the mop. "You do the d-dishes! And I'll clean the floor, and the counters, and then we can g-get started on the next room, and then the next, until we're done with the whole apartment. Okay?"

The work moves surprisingly quickly, months of accumulated debris vanishing like snow before a blowtorch as the girls busily set themselves to the task. Half an hour passes in relative silence as they clear the kitchen and move on into the living room before Kiri draws Emi's attention.

"Um... Emi?" She offers a framed picture to the other girl. In it, a short-haired eight-year old Emi balances precariously, sitting on the shoulders of an older boy in his late teens. She is wearing a leather jacket several sizes too big that hangs down past her ankles and an overlarge beret draped askew to the right. Despite her eclectic clothing, she looks overjoyed, a wide, laughing smile on her face as she joyfully shouts at something outside the picture. The boy under her is looking up fondly, and with a trace of exasperation as he holds onto her legs to stop her falling off.

All in all, the image is so adorable that Kiri can barely hold back a squeal at the cuteness. Emi takes it reverently and smiles wistfully as her eyes flick over it.

"Yeah," she says softly. "Yeah, I thought I'd lost this. That's my cousin, see?" she glances at Kiri, tracing the boy's face, "I lived with my grandma for a while when I was younger, when Dad was in hospital and Mum... yeah. He looked after me a lot. Well, him and his friends. Heh. That jacket is his - I still have it somewhere. I must've looked so ridiculous running around after them in it..." She stares at the figures for a moment longer, lost in thought, and Kiri fidgets nervously. It feels like she's intruding on a private moment, something special and intimate. But then Emi looks up, and the moment is lost.

"We had good times, him and me," she grins, "I learned a lot." She props the picture up on a recently uncovered mantelpiece that probably hasn't seen the light of day in weeks and turns back to the sofa, unravelling a half-decayed length of string from where it is wound around the legs.

"So..." she ventures after a moment of silence, "you've been a bit down lately." The question hangs in the air unanswered, Kiri busying herself extracting papers tossed carelessly on the floor and sorting them into 'rubbish' and 'keep' piles. After another brief pause, Emi tries again, "Is there anything wrong? Anything you wanna talk about?"

Kiri glances up dismissively, "N-no. Everything's fine at the moment. Do you want to keep these manga? How did you get so many, anyway?"

"Huh?" Emi cranes over to look, "Oh... wow. Boring, boring, sappy... yeah, chuck them. But... you don't seem fine, Kiri. You sure there's nothing wrong? You're not feeling sick, or in trouble with your mum?"

"Yes," Kiri insists, a note of irritation entering her voice, "I'm fine. Mama is fine, school is fine, everything is just... fine." She concentrates harder on clearing up, refusing to meet Emi's eyes. They lapse into silence for a while, moving onto Emi's bedroom. Catching a glimpse under Emi's bed, Kiri shudders wordlessly and orders Emi to get rid of the accumulated gunk and grime while she hoovers the living room. As she scrubs, Emi mulls over her options, and by the time Kiri comes back in, she has a workable strategy.

"Look, Kiri," she starts, before the mousy girl has a chance to speak, "I'm worried about you. So is Sasoriko and... and Hatchi is going _frantic_. We're all really worried, and upset, and... like, you _say_ you're fine, but you're obviously not, and you're our _friend_." She waves off Kiri's protests, gets up from next to the bed and hugs the girl. "You're scaring us. Scaring me. Please, Kiri, we want to help. We can't help if we don't know what's wrong."

The words hang heavy in the air for a moment. Emi pulls back enough to watch Kiri's expression change, guilt and shame clear as they flit across her features. After a short internal struggle, Kiri bites her lip and bows her head.

"Okay," she whispers in a small voice. "I'll tell you."

* * *

**38.**

"... and... i-it was a b-birthday card." Kiri sniffs, breath hitching, "f-from my- from my father."

"... I don't get it," says the blue haired girl in the mirror after a brief pause. "I mean, yeah, it's a bit late... well, 'kay, a lot late, but still, how's a birthday card a bad thi-"

"_He got the date wrong!_" Kiri's voice cracks like a whip, stutter vanishing as if it never existed. "His _only daughter!_ And he didn't even remember what day my birthday was!"

Silence falls. The faint sound of traffic is unreasonably loud in the sudden hush, interspersed with the quiet movements of Hyouka downstairs. Hatchi and Kiri stare at one another through the mirror-screen, unsure of what to say.

Finally, after an agonisingly long wait, Hatchi speaks.

"Oh," she says, and falls silent again, biting her lip with an edge of nervous uncertainty. "Um... if you want, I could go find him and-"

"No," Kiri cuts her off flatly, and Hatchi rocks back slightly. This... this isn't good. Usually, she knows what to do, how to fix stuff. But this isn't a problem she can beat up or smash through, and that makes it _scary_, in a way she doesn't quite have words for yet.

The girls sit awkwardly for a while longer before Kiri sighs tiredly. "I'm... sorry, Hatchi," she starts, and Hatchi instinctively wants to make her take it back, tell her it isn't her who should be apologising. She isn't even really sure why Kiri is upset in the first place... why is it so important how old people think you are? But she can't find the words to express herself, so she stays quiet and listens to her mousy-haired friend.

"I- Emi t-told me how I was making everyone upset, a-and I'm sorry for g-getting you worried. I just... um, after my father even got the date wrong, I d-didn't want to talk to anyone, and... s-sorry." She hangs her head quietly, looking very small all of a sudden.

Hatchi searches for words, unnerved by Kiri's depression. She's meant to fix this sort of thing in her sidekick, and she can't, and that means something is _wrong_, and bad, and... and she's starting to get worried that maybe she should be more upset about being sort of seven and sort of thirteen at the same time. She shakes the uncertainty off and falls back on what she knows, resolving to ask Little Mommy about the confusing stuff later. Besides, she reasons, Kiri will probably be most comforted by familiarity.

"Alright," she chirps, "S'okay. But that said, _don't_ you ever, ever, _ever_ dare not talk to me again! I mean, I was worried about y-"

For the third time in one conversation, the blue-haired girl is cut off. This time, by an explosion.

Kiri watches, stunned, as two of Rei's sisters run into view from the left. She doesn't recognise them offhand, so they're probably ones she hasn't met yet-

Her train of thought abruptly terminates as one of the girls makes a frankly physics-defying lunge to grab the other.

"Give it _back!_" she screams angrily. The other squirms out of her grip and dances backwards, waving her hands frantically. "Give _what_ back?" she protests at equal volume, before diving out of the way to avoid another lunge. Hatchi watches from next to the screen with faint but growing traces of annoyance.

"You know damn well what you did!" accuses the first sister, blurring slightly as she pushes the second toward a corner, boxing her in with sheer speed and fury. "No, I don't!" the latter responds, feinting left before trying to get away to the right.

She isn't quite fast enough, and the first girl's fist slams into her cheek, stunning her for long enough to be pinned down. Her attacker glares down at her angrily, "You stole my filespace and formatted two sectors and I want them back!" she hisses, and Kiri blinks in confusion. _That's_ what this is about?

Then her thought processes are abruptly derailed again as the pinned girl wrenches a hand free and pulls a genuine bazooka out of thin air to rest against the other's head. "Did I?" she asks innocently? "Don't remember doing anything like that. Anyway, you know I'm bad with that sort of stuff!"

Her sister's eyes narrow, and a flick of a wrist produces a glowing lightsabre, which she rests across the prone girl's throat. "Listen, you little-"

"Hey!" interrupts Hatchi, apparently tired of being ignored. "My space! What're you two doin' here?"

Both her sisters break their mutual standoff to look quizzically at her. After a second, the one on the bottom scratches the back of her head in faint embarrassment. "Well, see, Kei's after me for some reason, and I thought this was the explosion room, so I-"

"Liar!" interjects Kei angrily, "Nana was the one who smashed through the security protocols!"

"Only cause they were there! What did she expect, leavin' a big 'Do Not Disturb' sign up, anyway?"

"Both! Out! Now!" yells Hatchi, stamping her foot. Both sisters pause again and take in her expression. Apparently deciding not to press the matter, they retreat. Faintly, the sounds of battle can be heard as they resume their argument in safer territory.

"An' stay away from Siyon's area!" Hatchi yells after them, "She's having a bad day today, you know what she gets like! Go blow stuff up where you're supposed to!"

"Urgh," she grumbles, returning to the mirror-screen and sitting back down. "Sisters. Sorry 'bout that, they can get a bit... annoying, at times."

"... that was a r-rocket launcher," manages Kiri faintly. "A-and an energy sword. I-in a sibling argument." Her father, and the depressed fugue that has occupied the past week or so, have been momentarily forgotten as she tries to adjust to the battering her sense of reality has just taken.

"... oh, yeah," says Hatchi. "Um... yeah. We... kind of don't exactly live in the real world."

"... ... ..." says Kiri, still staring straight ahead with a shell-shocked look.

Hatchi frowns, "You aren't gonna ask about that?"

"N-normally I would. B-but after what I just saw, I'm willing t-to believe almost anything."

"Huh. Guess I gotta give you that," Hatchi concedes. "Well, basically, cause of our heart conditions, we can't be out and about much, so we're generally kept in sort of stasis tube thingies. Only that's not good for a growing girl's mental development," her voice changes as she says this, and Kiri gets the feeling she's quoting someone, "so we're plugged into a VR simulation. Which is what this is! A simulated world where we can run around and have fun and do stuff! S'called the Reetrix." She beams, before a sudden wistful look overtakes her. "Still not as good as the real thing though," she sighs, "like Rei gets to have. Actually being out in the real world, underneath the sky - I mean, we can program it here, but it's just code, an' sometimes Nana breaks holes in it when she's in a blow-things-up mood. Which is most of the time, really."

"I... um..." Kiri attempts to grasp for words, and fails. Luckily, fortune steps in and offers an easy escape as her watch starts beeping. "Oh, I have to g-go and feed Hoshi. Um... can we talk later?"

Hatchi nods happily, and the mirror returns to its default state. Kiri stares at her reflection briefly, absorbing what she's just learned about her friend's life, before shaking herself and trotting downstairs to get Hoshi's feed ready and take it out to him.

She's two steps out of the door when she sees the cat. Well, the feline. It looks more like a small ginger lion than a housecat, and it's _sitting on the roof of Hoshi's hut and smiling what has it done with Hoshi?_

Raw, primal panic grips her. "Hoshi!" she screams, rushing across the garden with her heart in her throat. The relief when she sees the little rabbit safe in his hutch is enough to tear a sob from her, collapsing as the terrified adrenaline leaves her system. After a moment's rest, she looks up blearily at the monstrous feline still curled on the roof of the hutch.

"Shoo. G-go on, shoo! Go away!" She waves her hands at it, urging it to scurry off somewhere.

The cat regards her with a flat, unimpressed look. 'Try me,' the gaze seems to say, 'go on. Make my day.' Kiri blinks, puzzled. "I said go aw-way!"

Her only response is another bored, superior stare. Then the cat slowly looks down, as if it can see straight through the wooden roof of the hutch, at the tiny ball of quivering terror huddled as far away from it as possible. It licks its lips slowly, and returns its gaze to Kiri.

"You... you want to be fed?" she asks. The cat's eyes flash with brief interest at the mention of food. Kiri gulps. "I could get you some cat food, if you want?" she ventures, trying to think of where she might get some. Maybe she could borrow a tin from a neighbour? "Or maybe some mince?"

The look the cat - which she has privately named the Evil Blackmailing Killer Feline from Hell, with only a slight twinge of guilt at making up such a nasty name for a creature that's only following its instincts - gives her a look of utter, absolute disgust so palpable she can almost feel it.

"... s-some p-pork chops, maybe?"

The disdainful glare becomes almost insulted, and a low, rumbling growl resonates from the cat. Claws scrape slowly across the wooden hutch roof, which is sagging slightly under the enormous creature's weight. Beneath it, Hoshi appears to be frantically trying to dig through the floor.

"Steak! We have steak! I-I'll give you that, just p-please don't hurt him!" Kiri yells in desperation. The growl stops, and the giant feline uncurls from its resting place with unnatural grace, hopping silently down from the hutch and strolling over to rub its cheek against her leg with a low purr.

Five minutes later, watching the cat - whose name seems to be Merrill, from the immaculate silver tag on its collar - scarf down the last of the steak before vanishing over the fence with a last glance at Hoshi, Kiri tries to work out how she's going to explain the missing food to her mother. And more importantly, what she's going to do if the monster comes back.

* * *

**39.**

"Yes, so it turned out that she- what? But... if you already knew, why did you call me?" The short, pale girl frowns, listening to the reply and growing more and more irritated. "Yes, but _I was the one who told Emi to find out_. Why _wouldn't_ she tell me?"

The response makes her stare at the phone in frank disbelief. "What," she says flatly, barely remembering to keep her voice low enough to be inaudible from the front of the car. Another pause, as her incredulous look intensifies. "... yes, it _is_ normal to get upset if someone calls you the wrong age. Why would it not be?"

She closes her eyes in frustration, praying for patience. "No, Hatchi, there is _nothing_ wrong with her, she- look, I have things to do. And don't pester her about it, it'll make her worse. Ask-" Sasoriko briefly runs through the list of people Hatchi knows. Her sisters, Emi, Kiri, Sasoriko herself... maybe her mother?

... who... raised Rei. Perhaps not. In fact, that's a point... maybe she should look into that further? What kind of parenting is required to raise someone so... so _Rei_, anyway? Sasoriko makes a mental note to brainstorm some ideas later, and returns her attention to the conversation, "... ask- just ask someone else, alright? An adult, or... someone."

She snaps the mobile shut, ending the call, and sighs. Her arms ache from an hour and a quarter of ballet practice, and - she flicks a damp lock out of her face - her hair is taking far too long to dry from her shower. From the front seat her mother speaks up without taking her eyes off the road, "Who was that, Sasoriko?"

"A friend of a friend, mother," she replies softly. It's tiring, wearing the polite, obedient mask for her parents. Still, it's not as if she has much of a choice in the matter. "Her name is Hatchi Ayanami."

It's incredibly well hidden and almost instantly suppressed, but Sasoriko still catches the sudden tension in her mother's shoulders. Her eyes narrow as her attention focuses, but he voice remains sweet and formal. "She's an... interesting girl. One of Kirima-san's friends. I believe Rei Ayanami is her sister."

She's watching for it this time, and the slight stiffening of her mother's shoulders is easy to detect as she says Rei's name. Sasoriko purses her lips in interest. Rei is strange, yes, but what about her could engender such a reaction in her mother, who has never, to Sasoriko's knowledge, even met the blue haired girl?

It's a mysterious little stumble in her daily routine, and one that she wasn't expecting. She allows herself a faint grin. She _likes_ mysteries, and this one will be very interesting to solve.

The car draws up to a stop next to the comfortable detached house, and Sasoriko grabs her violin case from the seat next to her and gets out. Bidding her mother goodbye, she makes her way up the intricately tiled path as the car pulls away.

As always, her music teacher greets her at the door. He smiles warmly, welcoming her into the music room, and takes his seat at the grand piano as she prepares her violin.

"Alright, Sasoriko. We will start with scales and arpeggios to warm up, and then move onto Andante Cantabile, if you would be so kind?"

Sasoriko nods wordlessly, raises the violin to her shoulder and begins to play.

Forty five minutes later, the ache in her arms has intensified into a dull, insistent throbbing and she can feel the faint traces of a headache coiling its icy tendrils between her temples. Her fingers are sore from the exertion, but she nonetheless executes the last few bars of the aria with only the faintest tremor and Yasuhiro seems to accept it.

"Thank you, Sasoriko. You were somewhat shaky on the last half of that last piece, but apart from that I am pleased. Keep practicing Valse Lente - you still haven't quite perfected the timing. And once again, _do_ try to put more _feeling_ into the music as you play. The added emotional dimension between a clinical performance and a soulful one can often tilt the first prize to the latter."

Sasoriko nods politely, ruthlessly suppressing a twitch at the parting remark she has heard often enough to quote word for word. Quietly thanking him for his time, she departs with a sigh of relief, sliding into the waiting car and resting her head back against the seat, eyes closed. Normally, her mind would be whirring, theories and deductions forming and being discarded or developed in equal measure. But today has been exhausting, and with school tomorrow she can't help but take an opportunity to slow down and relax, even if only for a few minutes.

As they arrive home, Sasoriko has reason to be grateful for the upcoming play in two weeks. Rehearsals, she has found, give her an impressive amount of leeway. It isn't just music lessons that have been relaxed; as long as she is practicing her lines she is allowed to get away with less time spent practicing each night as well. She pulls a bedside drawer open and roots around the clutter inside for an energy bar. After overturning most of the contents twice, she concludes with no small amounts of irritation that her supply has run out, and shoves the drawer shut again with a muffled clatter. The hollowed out book for Kiri's cookies yields only crumbs, and examination of the stash taped to the underside of her bed reveals only a few empty wrappers.

Exhausted and peckish, script in hand, she slumps back down on the luxurious double bed, noting with mild annoyance that she can still fit on it without her feet hanging over the edge. Even when lying across it sideways. Grudgingly, she looks at the sheaf of paper, scanning over the words she has long since memorised.

"I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry," she quotes, gesturing dramatically towards the ceiling. "Did not you speak?" The role of Lady Macbeth is fun to play, she has to admit. It's certainly more enjoyable to practice than endless hours of boring, repetitive music. Even if she has to play opposite Suzuhara. She really doesn't know what Kiri sees in the boy. And the less said about the... alterations to the plot that Rei's presence as an actor has necessitated, the better.

"Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength, to think so brainsickly of things." She pauses, ignoring a twinge from the general area of her stomach, "Hmm. Needs more scorn." Really, she thinks, it's for the best that she got the role instead of Kiri. While her friend's acting skills could certainly pull off Lady Macbeth's personality - indeed, it wouldn't even require that much acting - it would reveal far too much of her hand and risk revealing her true nature.

"Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures... urgh." The pages flutter as she tosses the script aside. Her eyes wander the room, drifting over abstract paintings and rich furniture. Guiltily, her gaze flicks to the wall-mounted board over her desk before she wrenches her attention back to the script. She should really be rehearsing her lines, even if she does already know them all...

"Sasoriko," her father's voice drifts up from downstairs, "supper is ready."

An escape, however temporary. And as she processes the words, it occurs to her just how hungry she actually is, from the ballet and the music practice. She doesn't hesitate, hurrying downstairs and straightening her school uniform on the way. Halfway down the stairs, the scent of yakisoba hits her and the rest of the descent passes in a sort of food-crazed blur.

"So how far along are you in your current project?"

"At the moment, we're still working on the further ramifications of the work that Berlin has produced on the Weyl curvature tensor's implications for the absolute terror field in greater than four dimensions. They've shown that the tensor doesn't vanish in the proximity of such a field, so the metric isn't locally conformably flat, but their model doesn't explain the implications that the local geometry of such spaces is hyperbolic."

The corner of Sasoriko's mouth creeps up slightly as she watches her mother animatedly explain her work. She recognises the blank look in her father's eyes; one she probably shares. He still asks her mother what she's doing at work, because she seems to enjoy explaining it, but neither father nor daughter can do anything but pretend to understand the advanced mathematics. And the woman seems to notice this, because she blinks. "Basically, we're trying to build a mathematical model for how certain fields propagate," she concludes, "and at the moment, we're hitting a blank." She runs a hand though her long, dark hair - so like Sasoriko's - and sighs. "It's a bit depressing."

Tuning out the conversation, chopsticks diving into the bowl of noodles over and over again, Sasoriko concentrates on conveying food to mouth with the maximum possible efficiency, and the least possible noise. The last thing she wants right now is a talk about her table manners. That would delay food.

"Sasoriko? How have you been doing with your studies?"

Damn. She swallows her current mouthful, suppressing a grimace, and lowers her chopsticks with a mournful look at her half-full bowl. Answer quickly, finish eating and get back upstairs, she thinks. And don't get dragged into a scolding.

"I've been doing well, mother. My schooling is progressing well - I got an A in the last test, though I think I could have done better. Moko-sensei says that my violin technique is almost perfect." She takes another bite, considering, "And the rehearsals are going excellently. I have all my lines memorised, and I'm working on perfecting the delivery."

Sakura nods in satisfaction, turning back to her husband with a query about his day. Bored again, Sasoriko allows her eyes to wander as she eats. The setting sun gleams through the large windows, reflecting off the framed pictures and awards decorating the wall. The nearest catches her eye momentarily - her Grade 6 piano certificate, framed and put up on display.

_Clink_

Her chopsticks hit the bottom of the empty bowl, earning a scowl from the pale girl. She throws a slightly predatory look at her parents' bowls, calculating her chances. Minimal, she decides. And with her secret supplies dwindled to nothing, she has no fallback waiting in her room, either. An uncharacteristically apprehensive look crosses her face, hidden behind the veil of hair that has fallen forward across her face as she looks down. She may be forced, with no other options left open to her, to risk raiding the kitchen later on.

Later that night, the house stands dark and quiet. The moon casts a pale silver glow over the outside, and the faint hum of distant, late-night traffic can be heard, blown on the cool breeze from the direction of the inner city. Nothing stirs.

Almost nothing, that is.

Stocking-clad feet pad silently over the black marble floor as Sasoriko pads across the kitchen with every ounce of stealth she can muster. Carefully, she shifts a chair into position and clambers onto it to reach the high shelves. Retrieving the bowl she placed on the counter earlier, she fills it with rice cakes, turning the packet so her parents won't immediately notice that any are missing. Everything is returned meticulously to its original place, and the girl ghosts back out, no-one having noticed a thing.

Raiding the kitchen would be a lot more of a challenge, she muses, in a smaller house where your parents weren't in one of the rooms in an entirely different wing.

Arriving unmolested back in her room, Sasoriko wastes no time in secreting her haul of delicious food between her various hiding places. The last two she keeps, cracking the wrapper on one to take the edge off her lingering hunger. Settling in at her desk, Sasoriko flips open her notebook and reviews the day's theories and observations. She glances up occasionally as she transcribes, referencing the large corkboard dotted with sticky notes, pinned scraps of paper and the occasional picture.

_Kuro still making advances,_ she prints neatly, _Is Kiri encouraging/unbothered by his behaviour, or simply unwilling to risk breaking her cover?_ A brief check through a folder lying nearby, flipping through the pages to find the archived observations she wants before continuing. _From prior evidence (see notes KH112-KH125), likely to be the latter. Watch for any signs of change._

Reaching up to the top left hand corner of the board, she carefully adds the note to a mind map that looks like the offspring of a many-legged spider and a small explosion in a library. Nodding in satisfaction, she moves onto the next point in her notebook.

_Another set of hand-eye coordination tests at the nurse's office. Using a joystick to move a cursor to suddenly appearing objects onscreen. Varying sensitivity on the joystick._ Sasoriko deftly adds this entry to the lists of tests, along with the date and time of day.

Stifling a yawn, chewing idly on the second rice cake, the small figure continues her self-appointed task, cutting away the lies to uncover the secret truths that the world at large is trying in vain to hide from her.

And also to get some sleep, at some point. But that can wait, for now.

* * *

**40.**

Yui sighs. Something in her head tells her that she should be working right now, but she can take one evening off to see Rei's play. "Gendo, you've got Section 2 in place?" she asks her husband beside her.

The man nods. The motion dislodges his glasses; he pushes them back up with a finger. "Both internal and external," he replies. "And one aimed at Rei, just in case she gets carried away."

Yui nods uncertainly. "Alright... I still can't say I'm comfortable with the idea, though. Are you _sure_ this teacher's background came up clean? Putting Rei as Macduff... I don't like the message. It might be the Old Men both telling us that they've found something about her... past, and... well, Macduff kills 'the usurper'. So..."

Gendo nods reassuringly, "I'm 95% sure I didn't miss anything. I can't be certain, but it seems to be innocent. And Rei is a fairly good choice for the role. She certainly has the energy to carry it off well. Just relax and enjoy the play."

Reluctantly, Yui accepts the advice and settles back in her seat. Glancing around, she spots a few faces she recognises from NERV - two women from the Science team, a technician, someone she vaguely remembers as being one of the maintenance staff.

"It seems that we've got quite the turnout," she murmurs. "More than a few familiar faces. Oh, actually, that's-"

"Yui," Gendo cautions, "you can talk to whoever it is later. Don't network now, we're here to watch the play."

Gradually, the general clamour and bustle of talking and movement in the hall quietens down, and an anticipatory silence takes its place. A slender young woman in her early twenties walks on-stage from the left and turns to face the audience.

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!" she declares. "I am proud to present the fruits of much practice and rehearsal! Tonight, for your pleasure and entertainment, we will be showing... the Scottish Play!" She claps her hands once as she finishes, for emphasis, and the lights dim. An appreciative murmur ripples through the audience as she quickly walks offstage again. Then the curtains rise, the actors take their places and the play begins.

* * *

The play isn't bad, Yui has to admit. Obviously, she has seen better, but the acting is remarkably good for children as young as these. The boy playing Macbeth is quite good, and the girl cast as Lady Macbeth has the role down perfectly. Her mind cross-references names and faces to files she's seen, on their use as pilot-candidates, despite her best efforts not to. It seems she can't manage to just relax and watch the show. And not just because Rei is in it.

Despite her reservations, a smile pulls at her lips as she watches Rei passionately lament the deaths of her family and swear revenge on their murderer. Her blue-haired daughter might have more than a few oddities, but nobody can ever claim that she isn't enthusiastic. It might be Yui's imagination, but she fancies that Macbeth is a trifle paler when he next comes onstage.

Grumbling internally, Yui tries to silence the overactive analytical part of her mind and focus on enjoying the show. After all, it may not be professional quality, but it is fairly entertaining nonetheless.

* * *

"Then yield thee, coward," spits Rei, brandishing her shield at Macbeth, "And live to be the show and gaze o' the time: we'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, painted on a pole, and underwrit, 'Here may you see the tyrant.'"

Macbeth looks as if he would much rather take this offer, but rallies admirably and slashes his hand through the air in denial. "I will not yield," he says, though his voice sends a rather different message, "To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, and to be baited with the rabble's curse." His voice wavers as he completes his lines, for which nobody familiar with his opponent can really blame him. "Lay on, Macduff,", he finishes, "And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"

Expression grim, MacDuff draws a rather incongruously placed katana and leaps to the attack, aiming and pulling the blow just enough for Macbeth to shriek and block it by accident as he pulls his arms up in front of his face. The force of the impact knocks him over, and MacDuff backs off as he struggles to get up again.

"Uh..." The look he gives the grinning blue-haired vision of terror is terrified, but to his credit he attempts a few half-hearted slashes and stabs. Rei dodges and parries, allowing the wooden sword within inches of her body before spinning away. Yui's hands clench on the armrests as she watches the casual display of near-superhuman agility, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Gradually, as the fight progresses, the boy begins to get into the swing of things. His fear recedes under the adrenaline and he becomes surer, more confident, accepting the occasional easily blocked attack and responding in kind. He attempts a few acrobatics of his own, leaping over the cardboard bushes and even executing a few rolls.

He is thus somewhat understandably paralysed when one of his lunging slashes connects, and a bright red spray of arterial blood spurts out, his opponent falling backwards with a pained cry. Wide-eyed and frantic, he examines at the wooden sword, checking to make sure it's still the same one he remembers picking up. It is.

Turning, Macbeth stares blankly at the audience before him, the sprawled form of Macduff - who appears to be bleeding quite heavily, which _certainly_ wasn't something they had rehersed - before him. From the wide eyes of the onlookers, they appear just as surprised as he is. "Um..." the king manages.

Macduff coughs heavily, a wet, choking, pained noise. "Finish it," she rasps, "if you be a king, not a mouse!"

"Um."

Someone in the audience coughs. Backstage, Miss Kagurazaka has collapsed in horror at the desecration of The Scottish Play.

"So... so be it," Macduff continues, trying to pull herself up to a sitting position, blood dripping from her mouth. "Let the world see that Macbeth, who killed Duncan, who was a father to me, who killed my wife, my love and one true heart, who killed even my babes... see that Macbeth is a mouse unworthy of the crown. Let my death inspire others! Let the kingdom cry out 'Down with Macbeth', and he will not endure!"

"Shut up!" Macbeth yells, eyes flicking from left to right. "I... um... I am no mouse! I am a man, and a... king! Take that!" The stage blow is clearly pulled, but Macduff lets out a final scream, and collapses on the stage, in a pool of blood. He blinks, and after a moment's thought, collapses to his knees. "Oh no! Um. My... wife is dead... and the words of Macduff have bought sudden doubt to me. Though I may have won the fight, I am still defeated." Shuffling around, he thrusts his blade between his arm and his body, screams, and collapses on top of Macduff.

The shocked silence goes on, until one fast-thinking person in the technical crew drops the curtain.

"I'm... not sure that's how it's supposed to go," says Yui doubtfully. "And is Rei-"

"Best not to ask, I think," says Gendo firmly. "All in all? I think this is probably one of the better ways this could have played out. Nothing got broken, the stage isn't on fire, and most of the play went like it was supposed to." He smirks, "And I have to admit, it's a twist I haven't seen before. I must confess, the novelty is enjoyable."

Backstage, Sasoriko turns wide eyes on her friend. "Did you know she was planning to do that?" she hisses in stunned disbelief.

Kiri blanches. "No!"

"... ah, I see. So _you_ planned that, and she was just carrying out your orders. But why?"

Kiri can feel the steel jaws of the trap that is Sasoriko's logic closing around her. Even so, she makes a vain attempt to fend off the inevitable conclusion. "Even m-more no! You have it all wrong!"

"Are you sure you didn't ask her to do it to let Touji win? It's a shame he wasted that victory with his suicide." She crosses her arms, "I wish I'd known. I wouldn't have killed myself then, if we were going to win."

"Sasoriko, listen to me!" Kiri notices the looks they are attracting and drops her voice to a sharp hiss, "I d-didn't ask her to do it, or order her to do it, or know she w-was going to d-do it at all!"

Sasoriko barely seems to hear her, already frowning in the focused way that Kiri knows so well. Any moment now, the notebook will come out. "Then why-" she murmurs, "oh Kiri, for god's sake! I _apologised_ for getting the role, it wasn't my fault! There was no need to wreck the play over it!"

She produces her small, leather-bound notepad and a pen, casting around for something to lean on while she writes. Kiri slumps slightly. It's too late to protest now, she knows. Resigned to her fate, she fidgets in her seat and determinedly starts trying to block the memory of the entire afternoon from her mind.

From experience, it will take some time to do so.


End file.
